Dreams and Prophecies
by shadows59
Summary: The threesome finally gets their normal life, but fate waits around the corner. Part 6 of Finding Heaven. B/X/Ay, S/T
1. Chapter 1

Title: Dreams and Prophecies

By: Shadows59

Summary: The threesome finally gets their normal life, but fate waits around the corner.

Category: B/X/Ay, T/S

Spoilers: More altered Season Six up to Seeing Red.

Disclaimer: Owned by Joss and Co.

A special thanks to Celine for editing and being able to figure out what I meant. Something not even my family has managed to do...

Chapter 1

Four and a half weeks after Black and White

Xander was sitting on the couch in his living room with his feet up on the coffee table and a look of pure satisfaction on his face. There was a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn sitting on the cushion next to him and an ice-cold six-pack of coke at his feet. He'd been planning this day for a week and everything was perfect.

"Who would've thought it," he said to himself with a grin. In high school he spent Saturdays alone in his room wishing he had a girlfriend and watching tapes. Now he had not one but two girlfriends and was insanely glad that he had a moment to himself.

Not that he didn't love Buffy and Anya (and Dawn too, but in much more of a big brother way), but this was the first time he'd had the place to himself in weeks and he was determined to enjoy it. For once there weren't any monsters to slay, books to research, or work schedules to arrange. He didn't even have to get off the couch until Faith came by to pick up a book for Giles. So he settled in and pushed play on the remote control of the DVD player.

"It's rain. R-A-I-N. Fine, try to kill it!" Leonardo Leonardo shouted at the King of Canada as he slammed down the phone.

Xander got another handful of popcorn and was about to shove it into his mouth between chuckles when someone started knocking on the door. Xander sighed and wiped popcorn bits off his shirt as he pulled himself off the couch. "Hold on, Faith!" He shouted as he hit pause and threw the remote down on the couch.

He grabbed the black hardcover book off the lamp stand even though it made his flesh crawl. It was an almost eight hundred page long treatise on the Inquisition that Anya had borrowed from Giles. She'd been reading it every night for the last week before going to sleep with the wistful glow in her eyes that always worried him.

That should have been enough warning, it was for Buffy, but he just had to look over her shoulder. The pictures he saw gave him nightmares for a week. It didn't help that Anya stopped every few pages to critique the book. She'd cluck her tongue or shake her head and say, 'Oh, no one lasted that long on the rack,' and so on.

"I've got a weird girlfriend," he muttered to himself, almost fondly despite it all.

Then he heard the knock again. Actually, this time it was hard enough to count as pounding. Xander rolled his eyes and walked to the door. "I'm coming. Keep your pants on, Faith!" Then he realized what he said and who he'd said it to and felt the blood rush out of his face. "I'm serious! If you don't, Buffy and Anya'll kill you after they're done doing worse to me!"

He reached for the doorknob, but stooped down to look though the peephole before he opened it. He hadn't survived for six years on the Hellmouth by being stupid. But it wasn't Faith on the other side of the door, it was someone much worse. Xander almost wished he could pretend he wasn't home, but it was too late. He opened the door, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Hello, Mr. Rosenberg."

Willow's father had been the closest thing Xander ever had to a real one, at least until Giles, not that he had ever told either man. So that made seeing him now, like this, so much harder. The older man had fallen apart over the last month. His eyes were bloodshot and his once-neat beard had become ragged and lined with gray. He wasn't even wearing a hat, and that was from a man so Orthodox that he considered 'Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown' sacrilegious. But the worse thing was the alcohol Xander could smell on the man's breath, although it wasn't even noon yet. Xander tried to think back to the last time he'd even seen Ira Rosenberg touch anything besides a bit of wine at the holidays, but couldn't think back that far.

"Alexander," Ira Rosenberg dragged out Xander's name. He was the only one who could call him that besides his mom. He'd earned it after the number of times Xander had crashed at the man's house to get away from his family.

"Mr. Rosenberg." The silence hovered over the two men like a living thing. In a way, it was. It even had red hair. "What can I do you for? Does Mrs. Rosenberg know you're here?"

Ira shook his head. "No. I don't think she even knows I've… She's buried herself in work since…" He closed his eyes and steeled himself. "Do you know where my Willow is? What happened to her?"

Now Xander wished as hard as he could that he had gone with his girls to the classical music concert, but it was too late. The three of them, Buffy, Giles and he, had talked about telling Willow's parents the truth. All the truth. Well, almost all the truth. What she had done at the end would never spread past the gang. But everything about the Hellmouth and what Willow'd been doing for the good fight. To show she was a hero, like that would make losing her easier. But he knew they were too grounded to buy any of it, and no one wanted to show them a vampire just to prove it was true.

So Xander told the biggest lie he'd ever told, even though he could still feel the knife in his hands. "No. I don't know…" He never got a chance to finish.

"Then why are you just sitting here! She was your best friend! Why aren't you out looking for her! She would have done anything for you!"

Xander was wrong, there was a bigger lie. "I have. I've done everything I could think of."

"Oh, you have, have you?" Ira asked as he turned and glared at the television. Xander turned and his stomach dropped when he saw the cartoon still frozen on the screen. "I'm sure you've looked long and hard sitting in front of the idiot box."

"It's not like that…"

"Then what's it like? Explain it to me." Ira crossed his arms and waited. Xander opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Finally he just hung his head.

"I thought so. She was always there when you needed help, but when she needs it you just abandon her. I never thought you were this selfish."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what else I can do for Willow." To Willow.

"Don't you ever use her name again!" Ira jammed his finger in Xander's face. "You don't have the right. She was kind and smart and loving and you don't have the right." His voice softened as he went on, and by the time he finished there were tears in his eyes. "I miss her so much, Alexander. My little Willow…"

"I know, sir. I had to remind myself she was gone for the first few weeks."

Ira rubbed his eyes and seemed to deflate. "She's not coming back, is she?"

Xander watched the man and decided to finally tell the truth. "No."

Ira just sighed and his shoulders slumped a little bit more. "I didn't think so. Shiela's going through every study she can find, trying to convince herself… But I've seen the news in this town. Do you know how many people disappeared last year?"

One hundred and fifty-seven. "A lot."

Ira sat down in a chair and buried his face in his hands. "Some days I think this town… That there's something wrong here." He looked up over his fingertips at Xander and looked mortified. "I'm sorry I yelled. I don't blame you, Alexander. Willow never had a better friend. I just haven't been myself."

None of her other friends slit her throat. Thank God she had me, Xander thought and felt disgusted with himself. "It's all right. No hard feelings."

Ira pulled out a hanky and completely missed the guilt on Xander's face as he wiped his eyes. "If you ever have a daughter, you'll understand. Though I pray that God doesn't do this to you. At least I would, but I don't think He's listening to me right now."

Xander nodded automatically, but he wasn't listening. All he saw was the horror show that started running in his head. He saw his daughter, who always looked like a mix of Buffy and Anya but never him when he tried to picture what she'd look like. He saw her as a vampire, a witch, a monster, and himself having to kill her over and over again. And each time he did a little bit more of him went with her. And he knew it would happen. After all he'd had to kill two of his best friends, why not his daughter too?

Neither man said anything for long time - long enough for the DVD to shut itself off. Then Ira looked around the room. "I'm sorry about what happened at your wedding. From the way Willow described her, that Anya girl sounded nice."

Xander managed to push his daughter's face to the back of his head. "It's all right. We've managed…. Everything worked out."

"Good." Ira said. He meant it, but didn't smile. He couldn't push himself that far. He looked out the window at the life that was still going on. "Hold on to her, Alexander. Things disappear so fast."

"I will," Xander said and told his fourth lie for the night.

Ira pushed himself out of the chair with a groan. "I'd better get back."

"Sure, sure. My house is your house," Xander said as he stared at the black television screen.

When he finally moved again, Ira Rosenberg was long gone. He felt the stake in his hand and saw his daughter's ashes in the sunlight and finally had enough.

"No. No way in hell," Xander said. There was only one way he could keep it from happening. He didn't think twice about it, he just went to the bedroom and pulled out the two suitcases, one was faded gray and the other a bright yellow, that were shoved in the back of the closet. He flung them onto the bed and started packing. He didn't even look at what he was taking; he just shoved things into the suitcases.

Once the suitcases were full he started to close them, but he stopped with a sigh and picked up the picture that was sitting on the bed stand. It was a picture of him, Anya and Buffy that they'd had taken in one of the cheap photo booths at the mall. His two girls looked so happy as they grinned at the camera. They'd only been together for three days then, a lifetime ago. He picked the frame up and ran his fingers over the glass, then shook his head and put it back. This was going to be hard enough without…

He closed the suitcases, took one in each hand, and walked out of their bedroom. The apartment was dark and empty except for him, but it still had life. If he breathed in deeply enough, he could smell Buffy and Anya's perfumes as they mixed together in the air. Dawn's clothes were still in a pile next to the couch. She did almost as much cleaning as he did, so he never really noticed the mess before. He tried to pull it all in and let it all go simultaneously.

Then he saw Jessica dead again and knew he couldn't stay, but there was one last thing he had to do. He remembered how crazy everyone had been when Buffy ran away at the end of junior year. The hours he had spent helping Willow search on-line, going through morgue reports and hospital records for any sign that she was alive or dead. He couldn't leave like that. So he borrowed a blank page from Dawn's notebook and sat down at the kitchen table, where he sat and stared at the whiteness for ten minutes.

"Will was right, I should've paid more attention in Lit class," Xander joked to himself. If this were a movie he would've written a beautiful letter, but it wasn't. In the end he just scribbled down: I have to leave. Don't look for me. I'll send all the money I can. I'm sorry. Take care of each other. I love all three of you. Goodbye, X.

Then he got up, hooked the letter under a magnet on the refrigerator, and walked out the door. He walked down the stairs and went to his car with all the grace of Frankenstein's monster. He put the yellow suitcase down on the sidewalk as he opened the trunk and slid the gray one in. He turned to get the second suitcase and almost ran into Faith.

"Goin' somewhere?" Faith had her arms crossed and one foot up on the suitcase.

"Or other," Xander answered without a trace of emotion as he looked at her. Then he glanced down at her foot. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all," Faith said and took a step back. Xander grabbed the suitcase and threw it into the trunk.

"It's odd."

"What is?" Xander asked as he slammed the trunk shut.

"Never thought I'd see you do this. Leave B," she said to answer the question he didn't ask. She just kept going when he didn't say anything. "Guess I should've though. Everyone else has. Her parents, Angel, Beefstick, Giles – which I never thought would happen - even her Slayer powers. So why not you?"

"It's not like that," Xander said, barely halfhearted. "I have to go to…"

"…protect her? Are you just going out of your way to copy Angel? Cause I'm pretty sure he did this song and dance first."

Xander's hand tightened into a fist. Sunnydale wouldn't even win gracefully and let him leave. No, it had to take the last pound of flesh first. "Do you think I want to do this?"

Faith leaned back against the front door of his car. "I hope not. If you do, then you're the biggest idiot I've ever seen. Even bigger than me." She grinned as if she thought it was funny. "I mean, you've got the life that most men and quite a few women would kill for. Know what I'm saying? Not one but two hot women who love you…" Faith shook the hair off of her face and chuckled. "No, I take it back. You are the biggest idiot I ever saw, no doubt."

"They'll be fine," he said without a doubt in his mind.

"Oh yeah. B'll be just fine after her newest boy toy takes off on her. You even get bonus points for leaving her with a brat. None of the others thought of that."

Xander turned away from Faith and the apartment building. "She'll have Anya - and Dawn."

"You mean the girl that you all but taught how to be human? And who almost got re-conned by that demon boss of hers the last time you decided to 'protect her'? At least that's what Dawn told me."

"Dawn has a big mouth." Xander's face darkened. He was still paying for that incident at the Magic Box. Thank God there hadn't been any customers in the store or Buffy would've killed them all.

"And you have thin walls," Faith countered. "And speaking of the pipsqueak, just think about what'll happen to her if you go. Another parent out of her life, like that." Faith snapped her fingers. "Yeah. She'll be in great shape to help. Go. They'll be five-by-five."

"I have to go," Xander repeated, just as much to himself as to Faith.

Faith pushed herself off the car. "Go then. I'm not stopping you." Xander reached out for the door handle but she grabbed him by the forearm and yanked it away from the door. "Oh, wait. I am."

Xander glared at her hand. "What do you care, anyway?"

"Because you tried to help me once. So I owe you one. That and B's been through enough, lately. Most of it from me." Faith sounded completely unrepentant at the mention of her little prank war with Buffy, mostly because she was winning. But she shook of the good memories and got back to business. "What about you? Why do you haveta go?"

Xander sighed and leaned back against the car next to her. "Willow's father came by today."

"Oh. How's?"

"He was loaded. He almost started something, but caught himself in time. Just another reason I used to wish that… He said that if I had a daughter I'd understand."

"He doesn't know about Jessica?"

Xander shook his head. "Don't see how. Couldn't show my face over there, not after what I did." He saw his daughter again. "What I'm going to do."

Faith didn't like the sound of that at all. "What?"

Xander grinned a sick grin. "I saw it. I've had to kill my two best friends 'cause of the Hellmouth. Why not my daughter too?"

Faith grimaced as if he'd punched her in the gut. "You don't know that…" Xander just snorted and she dropped that line of argument. "All right. Life around here sucks. No arguments. But if you're here, she at least has a fighting chance. With you gone..." Faith took a deep breath. "My father left right after I turned four. Never saw him again. Mom - didn't take it so well. I don't know if anything might have been different if he'd stuck around, but I don't see it getting much worse. You know?"

Xander let out a shuddering sigh. "But what if?"

"Then we have a better chance with you here than not. If Jessica's anything like her parents, it'd take most of the Army and some of the Air Force and Marines to knock her down."

Xander smiled at the thought of his daughter climbing buildings and swatting at old biplanes. "We are a stubborn bunch."

"Like bunch of as… donkeys." Faith corrected herself. "Hey. You still stuck up for me, even after all the shit I've done."

"I always did like a lost cause." Xander wasn't quick enough to dodge the smack to his shoulder. He rubbed at the bruise and wondered how he had forgotten the Golden Rule of picking on a Slayer. Never do it if they're in arm's reach. "Thanks."

Faith shrugged and went to the trunk. "I'm just glad you're not as big an idiot as me. At least I hope not." She stared into his eyes and waited.

"No, I suppose not." Xander popped the trunk and they both took a suitcase. They were halfway up the staircase when Faith paused in thought.

"Though there is one thing bugging me. Why are you all crammed in a one-bedroom apartment when Buffy has an empty house?"

"No one wants to sleep in it after."

"So? Then why don't you dump it and buy another house?"

Xander stopped dead at the sheer obviousness of it. "Son of a bitch," he muttered to himself. Then he gaze Faith a long, penetrating stare, looking her over from head to foot.

Faith scratched at her arm like she had a sudden itch. "What?"

"Just making sure you're the real Faith," he said after he made sure he followed the Golden Rule. He saw Faith's 'revenge good' face and thought quickly. "Have you ever seen the Clerks cartoons?"

"Don't think so."

"Good. I still have a bag of popcorn waiting. Whaddaya say?"

Faith just shrugged. "Sure. The G-man can wait a while." She waved her hand up the stairs and leaned back against the railing so he could go first. "Go on."

There was no way in Sunnydale he was going to let her out of his sight now. "Ladies first."

"What is this, the sixteen hundreds?"

"Careful where you say that. If Anya hears you, she'll give a detailed talk about what life was like in the sixteen hundreds. So will Giles, come to think of it."

Faith scowled at the thought of a lecture and spun around on her leather boots. "Fine."

"Good," Xander said as he followed her up the stairs. He had to take his eyes off her to open the door, but she didn't try anything so he figured he was clear. They dumped the suitcases in the bedroom and went back out into the living room. "Just gotta do one thing first."

Faith nodded and plopped down on the couch while he went over to the refrigerator and gave his note one last look. Then he pulled it out from under the magnet, tore it into pieces and dumped them into a trashcan.

"Feel better?" Faith asked as she watched him walk over to the couch. She had to coke cans, one opened and one not. She held out the unopened one and waited.

"Much," he said as he took the can and sat down. Once he was comfortable he opened the can and the soda sprayed out with a hiss. He sighed and looked over at Faith as the liquid dripped down his face. "Feel better?" He echoed back.

"Much," Faith said with a smile as she put her feet up on the coffee table.

"Good," Xander said and restarted the cartoon.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Six weeks after Black and White

It had taken four years, but Sunnydale High was finally rising from its ashes. The City Council used three of those years arguing about what they should do with the site, but now that they had decided they wanted the job done immediately. Since they were throwing plenty of money around, no one argued. So the school was almost ready, except for the windows and some detail work.

It was an almost exact match of the original, built from the same blueprints and everything. The only difference was in the basement, where several truckloads of cement had been used to prop up the foundation and plug the fissures that had formed in the basement walls, especially the ones that connected to the caverns that ran underneath the town.

Despite all the pains take to make it look the same, or possibly because of them, the new school seemed even more imposing and soul-crushing than the original. At least it did to the two women who were waiting at its gates.

"Why'd he want to meet here?" Buffy asked with a grimace as she pulled a piece of Chinese ginger candy out of the large bag she had stuffed in her purse and jammed it into her mouth. She hoped it would work as well on nerves as it did on morning sickness.

"I don't know." Anya sounded as worried as Buffy felt. "Do you think it has anything to do with the suitcases?"

They'd found the suitcases sitting in the front of their closet last week. They were empty - thank God - and Xander said he'd moved them to get the Playstation out for Faith. Faith backed him up, but something still felt wrong. Maybe it was the big smirk she had on her face when they asked her about it.

"Well, we can't stay here forever," Buffy said, but didn't move. Her eyes followed the bars of the gate to their pointed tips, which were a good five feet over her head. "I jumped over this, once."

"The good old days. I feel oddly nostalgic," Anya said, but from the way she danced from foot to foot it wasn't the good kind of nostalgia. Then she stuck out her hand. "I could use one of those candies, too."

Buffy pulled out another one and handed it to Anya, who shoved it in her mouth and started chewing loudly. Then she made a face. "Wait, I hate ginger."

"So do I," Buffy admitted as she finally swallowed the candy down. "But I hate throwing up more. The wonders of pregnancy."

Anya looked away and mumbled, "I think it is."

"What?" Buffy said and glanced over at her girlfriend.

"A wonder," Anya replied with an unusual longing in her voice. It was the same tone she used to use when she talked about being a demon, but even more so.

"Aw," Buffy sighed and wrapped her arm around Anya's. "That's so sweet."

"Unlike this candy," Anya said as she pulled a tissue out of her purse and spat the candy into it. "Horrid."

"You're so romantic." Buffy said with a grimace as she watched Anya toss the tissue into an industrial garbage can.

"I like to think so," Anya said without a hint of sarcasm. "Did Xander say where he'd meet us?"

Buffy shook her head. "No. I think we're supposed to find him. Ooo, I can't believe they rebuilt the bell tower." She pointed up. "I stopped Jonathan from killing himself up there. And over there," she pointed near the front entrance, "that's where we fought the mayor."

Anya stared down at the sidewalk. "Where I proved how fast I could run."

"We didn't blame you."

"You should have. You needed me and I behaved like a Frenchman."

"Like a Frenchman?" Buffy asked in confusion.

Anya glanced over and looked just as confused. "Isn't that right? Or is it a guy from Holland? I can't keep up with all the stereotypes."

"Always bet French," Buffy advised. "And don't feel too bad. I made sure mom was at a place far away for that little shindig."

"But you stayed. And so did Xander, even though he didn't have to."

Buffy cocked her head to the side. "What?"

"I offered to take him with me. Said we could drive in shifts. He never told you?" Buffy shook her head. "Well, I did. And he said no. I didn't understand why until we fought Glory."

"And what did that show?"

"That there are things worth dying for." Anya glanced over at Buffy, suddenly shy. "People. Family."

"And you two made me see that they're worth living for, too." Buffy looked thoughtful for a second. "Not bad for a carpenter."

"No," Anya said, and then she shot a guilty grin at Buffy. "And it's not like we're talking about this just to stall."

"Nope."

"Didn't think so." Anya puffed herself up, but didn't move.

"Let's get this over with." Buffy pushed the gate open and tried to walk forward, but Anya had a death grip on her arm and seemed to be anchored to the ground. "Chicken?"

Anya made a face. "No."

"Then let's go."

"Fine!" Anya took a half step backwards.

Buffy sighed and all but dragged Anya through the threshold of the school. They walked over the black dirt that would soon be covered with new sod and tried to fight down their worry and old memories.

Buffy was the first one to see Xander, and what she saw made her grind to a stop. It took another step for Anya to see him, and when she did she stopped dead. He was sitting with his back towards them and seemed to be staring at the building in front of him. He was still in the dark tan pants and sports jacket he'd worn to work today because he had to be at a meeting with the city. It did make him look good, which was important because it was the only suit he owned, but that wasn't what stopped them. It was where he was sitting, an old stone bench right off the outside walkway.

"He's leaving." Buffy and Anya said in unison. Then they looked at each other and said, "What?" also in unison.

"That's where I turned him down for the Spring Fling in sophomore year," Buffy explained. "I told him I didn't feel that way about him." She knew she had hurt him, but why did he have to shove those words back down her throat now? If she could, she'd go back and strangle herself, or smack some sense into herself, but it was too late. Then she looked over at Anya. "How do you know?"

Anya looked just as haunted. "That's where the three of you were sitting when I granted Cordelia's wish. Where I tried to get her to curse him."

Buffy knew enough about vengeance demons to know that meant hurt, or much more likely kill, him. "He wants to hurt us as much as we hurt him," Buffy realized and touched her stomach. How was she going to tell Jessica that she'd driven away her father?

Anya stiffened. "Hell with that. He's not getting away that easily." She grabbed Buffy's hand and this time she was the one who did the pulling. Buffy tried to pull back, at least to buy a few minutes, but Anya was driven.

Xander looked up when their shadows passed over him and grinned. "Hey, ladies."

"Don't, 'hey, ladies' me!" Anya shouted. "How dare you?"

Xander's eyes got wide. "What?" He looked over at Buffy for help.

Buffy hardened herself so he couldn't see the guilt she felt. "You heard her. You didn't think we'd figure it out?"

"How could you even think about leaving again?" Anya shouted and punched Xander in the arm.

Xander grimaced, then glared at Anya as he rubbed the spot she'd just hit. "First of all, ow. Second, Faith said she wasn't going to tell."

Now Buffy's feeling of guilt completely vanished. "I knew she had something to do with this."

"No, she doesn't," Xander said, then he seemed to wilt as he raised his hands in surrender, and to ward off any more punches. "Well, yes, she did. You see, last week, after Mr. Rosenberg visited, I almost…"

"Ran. Again," Anya said as she jumped ahead in his story. She somehow managed to keep her voice even.

Xander winced and didn't even try to deny it. "Yeah."

"Why?" Buffy asked as she tapped her foot.

Xander let out a breath and closed his eyes. "I don't remember what he said, exactly. Something like if I ever had a daughter I'd understand what it was like to lose one. But he didn't know he only lost her because I tried to kill her. It was to save Anya, and maybe the world, and I'd do it again if I had to. But then I started thinking what if the same thing happened to Jessica and I had to…" Xander lowered his face and covered his eyes with his hands.

All the fight left Buffy and Anya. They sat down on either side of him and wrapped their arms around him just so he would know they were there. "You wouldn't," Anya began.

"To save lives? To save the world?" Xander's voice was rough and he didn't look up. He also didn't give either girl a chance to think about it, he just kept going. "Anyway, I couldn't deal. And I figured I'd not deal by living up to form."

"We wouldn't let it come to that," Buffy said. She sounded as sure about that as if she had said that the sun would be up tomorrow.

Xander lifted his head off his hands and turned to look into her eyes. "That's pretty much the line Faith used to snap me out of it."

"You should have told us," Anya said without a hint of reproach.

Xander turned again and kissed her forehead. "I know, babe. At least I should by now. Still, old habits." Then he chuckled and wiped his eyes again. "Good thing the guys are gone for the day. I'd never live this down."

"What, having two beautiful women wrapped around you?" Buffy asked, her voice shaky, as she pressed her leg against his.

Xander reached down to rub her thigh through her jeans. "You're right. They wouldn't even know I was here. Anyway, last week actually got me thinking. That's why I wanted to talk to you two."

Buffy pulled away. "So you are leaving?"

Xander jumped a bit, then looked shock. "No, I'm done running. Why?"

Buffy looked down at the dirt. "Because of where we're sitting." When Xander didn't say anything, she looked into his face and only saw confusion. "Spring Fling. This is the bench where I turned you down."

"And where I almost cursed you," Anya added.

"It is?" Xander asked, befuddled. He looked around the courtyard and tried to think back. It had been a long time. Plus if he had to remember every time he'd been turned down his head would explode. Finally it all came back to him and he had to laugh. "Well, whadaya know."

"You mean…" Buffy began.

"…you didn't remember?" Anya finished.

"No. I just got tired of standing."

The two women let out the breaths they'd been holding. "Thank God," Anya said.

"Then what did you want to talk about?" Buffy asked.

Xander smiled a thousand-watt smile. "Like I said, I'm tired of running. I have everything I've ever dreamed of right here, so…" He stood, spun around and knelt in one smooth motion as he reached into the two pockets of his jacket. When his hands came out they were holding two blue velvet boxes. He flicked them open with practiced ease. Very practiced. Every spare moment in the last forty-eight hours practiced. Inside were two gold rings. "Will you marry me?"

Neither girl answered and Xander's confident smile wilted a little. "I know it's sudden. And it won't be legal - California's permissive, but not that much - but it'll be all right, at least for us. I talked to Giles' friend in the coven at Devon and she said she'd be honored to do a ceremony."

Buffy's eyes were locked on her ring. It was a simple gold band except for the top, where there was either a design of three circles linked together or a three-leaf clover; either way, the figure glistened with small diamonds. Then she answered by grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket, pulling him up, and kissing him so hard she almost bruised her lips.

When she finally let him go, his shirt was rumpled and his eyes were dazed. "Was that a yes?"

"Oh, yes," Buffy whispered, sounding winded.

He grinned again. "Good, because that would've been the best rejection I ever got." Then he looked over at Anya, who was staring at her ring but wearing a much more guarded expression. "Ahn? The world isn't even ending this time."

"No, not this week," Anya said. Her voice sounded a thousand miles away. She reached out and brushed her finger across the diamonds once before yanking it back as if the ring was on fire. "But we've done this before, and you know what happened."

"I know," Xander said. He carefully set the rings down on the bench so he could wrap his hands around Anya's. "I was an idiot. Hell, I was everything in the thesaurus that's related to idiot. I panicked and almost screwed everything up and I can never say how sorry I am for it. But I meant what I said before, I'm done running. I love both of you, and I'll be lost if you're not here with me."

Anya reached down and touched her ring again, but still didn't answer. Then Buffy reached over and put her hand on Anya's shoulder. "Come on. Just think about how much work you've put into him already. Be a shame to let it all go to waste."

Anya giggled once before she caught herself. "This is the last time, right? No more almost weddings?"

"Not unless you count renewing the vows," Xander promised.

"Then yes," Anya said.

Xander leaned up and kissed her just as hard as Buffy had kissed him. Then he picked up Anya's ring and slid it over her finger.

Anya held it up and watched the fading sunlight glimmer between the diamonds. "It's pretty."

"Easily the second prettiest thing here," Xander said.

Buffy raised her eyebrow in a fake scold. "Second."

"Yeah. You both tie, and so do the rings. So it's easy," Xander said as he pulled Buffy's ring out of the box and held out his hand. "My lady." Buffy put her hand over his and grinned as he slid the ring onto her finger.

Buffy lifted her hand up and admired her new ring. "You're right. It is pretty."

"Second prettiest thing here." Xander repeated and stood up. "There is one other thing."

"What?" Anya asked.

"I think we should get a new place to live."

"But I like the apartment," Anya said. "It's cozy."

"It's crowded," Xander countered. "And, as recent events have proven, thin-walled. I think we need a real house." He turned and waited for Buffy's reaction.

He didn't have to wait long. This time the Incident (as it was called) was forgotten, obliterated by the much greater dread Buffy had of her old home. The house was her biggest nightmare, its walls covered in blood and the bodies of everyone she loved scattered around it. Her mom had died in it, Amy had died there and destroyed Willow, and the worst of all was the memory of Xander and Anya being shot in the backyard. She didn't even hear the whimper when it started in the back of her throat.

"I won't go back there. I can't."

Xander grabbed her shoulders to try and calm her. "No, we get a new one. One that's all ours and sparkling new."

Buffy took a deep breath and fought down the surge of emotion, but she still felt hideously vulnerable. "A new house?"

"Yeah, it's a funny thing. People build brand new houses and then sell them. I hear it's all the rage in Europe," Xander said with what he hoped was a calming smile.

"It would be nice to have something bigger. Especially…" Anya said and glanced down at Buffy's stomach. Then she brightened even more. "And maybe a garden. I think I remember gardening. Or maybe it was farming?" She thought hard for a moment, and then shook the idea away. "No, that never seemed like fun. But definitely gardening."

"And maybe a workshop for me out back," Xander added and got a far-away look in his eyes. "I've been thinking off all the things the baby needs. A crib, toys… And Sears has a sale on tools."

"A home," Buffy murmured. "It would be nice to have some room to stretch out again." She looked down at her ring again and couldn't help but smile. "Engaged and a new home in one day. You don't do anything in half measures, Mr. Harris."

"I think we've proved that already," Xander said, extra cocky as he wrapped his arms around Buffy and Anya. "So what do you think?"

"I'm okay with it, but we'll have to see what Dawn thinks," Buffy warned.

"She'll be thrilled to have a bed again. Poor thing," Anya said with real sympathy. "But first things first. I want to show everyone my new ring." She stopped and looked at Xander worriedly. "Unless we're hiding it again."

Xander shook his head. "Nope. No more hiding either. Flash to your heart's content. Of course, don't come crying to me when Spike comes after you for giving Tara ideas."

"Why? He hasn't complained about any of the ideas I've given Tara so far."

"What kind of ideas?" Buffy asked.

"Don't worry. It's nothing we haven't already done." She met both of their stares without even pretending to be embarrassed. "And approved of."

"And to think I was scared before you two showed up," Xander said and mimed a shudder as he stood up. He looked at the school and shuddered for real. "Let's go home. This place still gives me the creeps, no matter how much money they give me to put it back up."

"Besides, we have a wedding to plan," Buffy said.

"That was the best part," Anya agreed. "All the catalogues."

Xander sighed. "I knew I'd forgotten something."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

15 weeks after Black and White

Xander, Anya, Buffy and Dawn wandered into the Magic Box with all the energy of people who'd been stuck in the desert for a week. They barely managed to get to the research table before they collapsed. Xander crossed his arms on the table and used them as a pillow while Buffy rested her chin on the palms of her hands. Anya stuck one arm out across the table and laid her head on her forearm while Dawn just leaned as far back on her chair as she could.

Giles glanced at them with pity and headed over as soon as he helped the last customer. "No luck on the house hunt?"

"Six houses in five hours and zip," Xander said, his voice echoing between his head and the tabletop.

"Well, better luck next time then," Giles said sympathetically. " Though I warned you that it might not be that easy…"

"But the last house," Buffy cut him off with an exhausted grin, "was perfect."

"Just what we were looking for," Xander said. "Two stories, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an empty basement for me."

"For you?" Anya mumbled her question. She was far too beat to give it the edge she wanted.

Xander was too tired to complain. "All right, for all of us. But I called dibs."

"Did not," Buffy said.

"Did so."

Buffy tried to think of some cutting remark, but right now even 'tree pretty' was beyond her. So she just stuck her tongue out at him, even though he couldn't see her.

"How on earth did you afford a new house like that?" Giles asked, both because he wanted to stop the argument before it got any more painfully juvenile and because he was a just a touch jealous.

"It's not new," Anya explained through a yawn. "It's a fixer upper. But not too bad, just some small things."

"Outside needs painting, stairs need to be tightened, and some of the windows need to be fixed. Give me a week to get feeling back in my feet and I'll make it better than new," Xander promised through a wide yawn.

"You should see my room," Dawn cut in. "It's huge. And it opens up over the park."

"So does ours," Buffy pointed out. "And from a bay window. We even have a whirlpool bath."

"About that. Not the bath, your room. There weren't any problems? With your…" He looked at the threesome without saying the word.

Buffy shook her head. "Nope. She totally bought that we were all pooling our money to buy a nicer place."

Dawn somehow found the energy to raise her hand and shake her finger at Buffy. "Almost. Until subtle girl here tried to blow the deal."

Buffy's face darkened. "You little snitch."

Dawn shrugged. "Hey, I'm not the one who sucks at undercover." She blushed when Anya and Xander started giggling.

"One little slip-up," Buffy muttered.

"What… kind of slip-up?" Giles asked and reached up for his glasses, just in case.

"Buffy was a little… overeager to see the master bedroom," Xander explained.

"There was a drool issue," Anya said.

"Ah." Giles eased his hand back down to his side.

Xander reached over and gave Buffy's hand a squeeze. "Which I was really hoping we wouldn't have to deal with until after the baby arrived."

Buffy blushed again. Then she decided to fight fire with fire. "Hey, at least I wasn't hitting on the realtor. If that Ms. Revings had her way, the two of you would be christening the bedroom right now."

Giles decided his glasses needed a cleaning after all. "She was forward?"

"She was leechlike," Buffy said.

"Yeah, she was at slut-factor 11," Dawn agreed. "I've seen vampires who were less grabby."

Buffy turned her glare on Xander, who had finally lifted his head up so he could keep track of the conversation. "And you enjoyed it."

Xander shook his head. "Did not. I just didn't want to blow the deal." Then he flinched. "Very bad phrasing. But Anya put the lady in her place." He reached over and took Anya by the hand. "Didn'tcha, sweetie?"

"Do I want to know?" Giles asked.

Anya grinned. "I just informed her that we were engaged and our wedding was next week."

"Yeah, like that's all. Why don't you tell the G-man what you told her when she invited Xander out to dinner to 'hammer out' the agreement," Dawn said, sadistically.

Giles scowled and rubbed his glasses harder. "Rest assured, you don't have to. I can well imag…"

"I informed her it he would be to busy 'hammering' something else to do anything with her until after our honeymoon. Maybe even later, depending on how long it took us to recover." Anya sounded very proud of herself. She saw the distressed look on Giles' face and tried to explain. "She did the same thing when she showed us the apartment. I had to make sure she knew her place."

"So that's why you started groping right in the middle of the driveway?" Dawn made a face. "I don't know why they have sex-ed for a whole semester at school. I mean, they could just have us follow you three around for an afternoon and we'd learn everything."

"And now I'll never be able to imagine anything, ever again." Giles sighed and finally gave up on his glasses. "So when will you hear about the house?"

"She said in a couple of days," Xander said. "But that's realtor-speak, so probably a couple of weeks. Hey, at least this time I'm sure we'll pass the credit check."

Giles turned to Buffy. "And what about the sale of your old house?"

"The lady's already gotten three offers on it. She said that the house's history let her add an extra ten grand to the price." Buffy shuttered at the thought of people paying extra money because of what had happened in that house. "People are sick."

"No doubt," Giles said.

Dawn finally got up enough energy to look around the store. "Where is everyone?"

"Faith, Spike and Tara went to clean a nest of Vesloth demons out of the tunnels," Giles explained.

"And you left us out of the fun?" Buffy asked with a hint of resentment.

"Vesloth demons are slime demons," Anya said to let Giles off the hook. "Purple slime that smells like rotten eggs and sticks in your hair for about a week."

"Oh," Buffy's nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Besides which, they aren't that dangerous. I'm confident that the three of them can handle it." As Giles said it, the bell over the Magic Box door rang. "That should be them, now."

Spike was the first one to stroll in, and he had that confident little gleam in his eye he only got after a really fun fight. Well, it did show up at other times, but Dru and Tara were the only ones who see it then. The axe head was covered in the slime, but he was completely clean.

"I see you got off lucky," Giles said as he walked over.

Spike fought back a laugh as Faith stomped in, with Tara following her like a duckling. Tara was clean, but Faith's entire back, from the top of her head to her leather boots, was covered in the thick purple ooze.

Faith managed to nail everyone in the store with one glare. "Anyone says a word and they die," she hissed out the warning. With that, she stomped across the sales floor and kicked open the door to the training room.

"It was an accident!" Tara cried out as she followed Faith into the training room, looking absolutely miserable and wringing her hands.

Anya wrinkled her nose at the smell that wafted up behind Faith. She got up and grabbed a can of air-freshener out from behind the counter. She emptied the can, but it only made the shop smell like rotten eggs in the middle of a pine forest.

Giles gave Spike a hard look. "What happened?"

"It was a hoot and a holler." Spike hopped up onto the counter top and set the axe down next to him.

Anya made a little noise in the back of her throat and picked up the axe, but it was too late. The glop was stuck to the glass. She grabbed a rag with her free hand and tried to scrub the muck off, but it only made a bigger mess. "Thanks. I had this case pleasantly shiny before."

"I know. Isn't evil fun?"

"Please. This is as evil as cursing people with paper cuts. Now you're just a pest."

Spike threw his hands over his heart, then grinned and reached to ruffle Anya's hair.

"Do that again and she'll probably take your arm off at the elbow," Buffy warned him.

"What? In front of the Super Friends?" Spike said and snorted in disbelief.

"I wouldn't see anything," Xander told Spike with carefully controlled glee.

"Me neither," Dawn added.

"Nor I," Giles finished.

"I see how it is," Spike glowered. Then he reached out and ruffled Anya's hair again. "Sorry." Anya glared at him and lifted the axe, at which point he raised his hands in surrender. "She kills me and you don't get your report."

"It would almost be worth it," Giles said. Anya grinned as she tightened her grip and measured out the swing with her eyes. "But not right now."

"But," Anya begged and looked to her significant others.

"Maybe later," Buffy said.

Anya set the axe down, careful not to let it slime anything else, and went back to cleaning. "Fine. I see how it is."

"Better make it good, fangless. We're in trouble now," Xander said.

"Breaks my heart," Spike muttered before he got back to business. "There were fifteen of the buggers, but they could barely walk in a straight line. Good thing for you I don't mind the occasional slaughter. The three of us were a thing of beauty; at least we were until they started shooting that gunk everywhere. You coulda warned us that stuff gets rank when the beasts are scared."

"What happened to Faith?" Giles asked.

"We were getting the last two when I bumped into the girl and she slipped into a steaming pile of that gunk." Spike said it all with a straight face, but he couldn't hide the gleam in his eyes.

"Bumped, or pushed?" Buffy asked, barely controlling her own grin.

"You heard what I said, Slayer," Spike answered, trying his best to sound offended.

"I'm betting pushed," Faith said as she walked out of the training room with a towel around her hair and wearing black sweatpants and a white shirt. "I have to burn those clothes now, and I liked those pants."

Spike's grinned. "So did I."

Faith growled and reached for the stake that she had jammed in the waistband of her sweatpants. "Just give me an excuse."

Buffy stood up and stepped between the two. "How about because I don't want to have to dust ag…" Buffy stopped when she felt something in her stomach go twinge. Then it twinged again. "Oo," she mumbled and lifted the hem of her shirt up and pressed her hand down on the spot.

Anya and Xander were on their feet in less than a heartbeat. "Are you all right?" Xander asked as he rushed around the table and put his hand on Buffy's back in a show of support. Almost all show: he was so afraid he'd make it worse he barely touched her.

"Yeah," Buffy said, but didn't sound nearly as confident as she wished. "I just… There it goes again." She grabbed Xander's hand and shoved it over the spot on her stomach.

"I don't…" Xander began, but then he did feel the little thump. He grinned. "I think that's her moving."

"What? I want to feel," Anya said. Xander was reluctant, but he slid his hand away. When Anya felt it she glowed almost as brightly as Buffy. "Wow."

"I wanna feel it too," Dawn said.

"Maybe I should charge admission," Buffy remarked, but that was the entirety of her protest. After a few moments everyone got to experience it, even Faith and Giles – though Giles handled it with the grace and dignity of a proper Englishman. His exact words were, "Bloody hell!" in a shouted whisper and a wide grin.

"Maybe we should have Rebecca do a blessing when she gets in from Devonshire on Sunday," Tara suggested, bubbling over with excitement, as she leaned against the staircase railing.

Buffy finally looked up at the one person who hadn't made a move towards her. "Come on, Spike. Last chance."

Spike didn't move from the counter. "Maybe I don't want to."

"Sure you do," Tara said and gave him a look.

"No." Spike glared back at Tara. They stayed like for nearly five seconds before he broke away. "Fine." He stomped over and slapped his hand down on Buffy's bare stomach.

"You touch her like that again, and you're dead," Xander hissed into the vampire's ear.

"Accident," Spike growled. He held his hand against her for all of two seconds. "Don't feel a thing. Must've tuckered her out." He was about to pull his hand back when he felt it.

It was just a little twinge. It could have been a muscle spasm, but he knew it wasn't. If vampires can hear worms move in the ground, he could feel the little thing kicking inside Buffy's stomach. He focused in on it and started to feel the rapid little heartbeat, almost like those birds that Dru had kept around. He lost himself in the sensation, to the point were he'd given up on the illusion that he needed to breathe or blink. In short, he had as much life as a corpse.

"Is he okay?" Anya asked Tara after a moment.

"I don't know," Tara said and bit her lip in worry.

"Spike?" Buffy asked and reached out to touch his arm while Faith slowly slipped the stake out, just in case.

Spike jumped back before Buffy could touch him. "I'm fine."

"But," Tara began.

Spike's face morphed. "I'm fine!" He shouted and spun around on his heel. Everyone took a step back as he stormed past them and out of the store. No one said a word until the door slammed shut behind him.

"What was that all about?" Dawn asked in worry.

Giles frowned. "I don't know, but I suggest we find out."

"I'll go," Tara said.

"No. Let me," Anya said suddenly.

"What?" Buffy and Xander said together.

"I really don't think it's a good idea," Buffy said.

"Yeah. Do you really want to be in a crypt alone with a pissed-off chipless vampire?" Xander asked.

Anya cocked her head to the side and looked at them, but wasn't really. "I think I know… Do you trust me?"

"It's not you we're having the problem with," Giles pointed out.

Anya tossed a worried glance at him. "But it could be."

"I really don't think this is…" Buffy protested in her official 'Slayer' voice.

"All right," Xander cut her off. Anya turned to him and saw the understanding in his eyes.

"What?" Buffy shouted at him.

Xander kept his eyes on Anya. "It needs doing, Buffy."

"Thank you," Anya whispered to him. Then she looked at Buffy. "I'll be careful."

"You'll need this," Faith said, and held up her stake.

Anya was going to refuse, but thought better of it. "Thanks," she said and pocketed the stake.

Tara stepped in front of her, her eyes wide with worry. "You don't need it."

"Probably right, but no sense being stupid. If I don't come back, you'll know why."

"The two of you eloped and moved to Mexico?" Faith asked.

Anya shuddered. "Good lord, no."

"Just checking."

Anya shuddered again as she walked out the door. Once the door was closed, Xander reached over and grabbed Faith by the shoulder. "Already on it, Xan," Faith answered before he could ask. "Let's roll." She stopped just once, to pull a pile of stakes out from behind the counter. She tossed them out to Xander, Buffy and Giles and took two for herself.

"Don't forget me," Dawn said and stepped in front of Faith.

Giles shook his head. "I don't think that that's a good idea."

"She's going to be my sister-in-law," Dawn countered. "And we watch out for family."

Faith looked into Dawn's eyes and saw the Summers' stubbornness in them. It would take forever to talk her out of it. Besides, as far as she was concerned, it was just as much Dawn's duty as anyone else's. "Don't think it's our choice, G." She held out the stake and Dawn took it with a whispered thank you. Faith nodded and headed for the door with the rest of the Scoobies barely two steps behind.

"You don't have to do this," Tara called out from the stairs where she was still standing. "He's changed. He's the one you can trust."

"I hope we don't," Xander said without looking back, "but I'm not taking any chances."

Tara lowered her head and nodded and sank down to the stairs as the group turned and left. Dawn was the last one to leave and she had to glance back before she did. So she was the only one who saw Tara start crying. A big part of Dawn wanted to stay, but in the end she turned and followed the others out.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The crypt's thick stone door opened with a groan. "Spike?" Anya asked as she walked in. She wiped her hand off on her skirt more out of reflex than from any dirt. Spike's crypt had always been the cleanest place in the cemetery, even before Tara started spending time in it. Now it was almost spotless. There were days when she wished Xander were half as neat, usually after she found a bowl under the couch with three-day-old ice cream caked on the bottom. Of course Xander never sat in a black room staring at a muted TV, so it all evened out. She took a hesitant step closer to Spike's chair and saw the vampire sitting with his hands clasped in front of his nose, almost in prayer. He didn't move, and she wasn't sure if he had heard her, so she repeated, "Spike?"

"Shut the bloody door," Spike muttered without looking back.

"All right," Anya hoped she kept the quiver out of her voice as closed the door with one hand and reached for the stake Faith had given her with the other. He didn't sound threatening, but she wasn't taking any chances. "Don't suppose you want to tell me why? Or are we doing that old horror movie thing with the perky young blond girl who wanders around alone in a dark room?"

Spike grunted. "You might be perky, but you're a few centuries too old to be called young. And we both know the blond came from a bottle."

"You're in a bad mood," Anya said in a huff. She still didn't know all the rules, but she knew he'd just broken a major one. Of course, the only reason she knew it was a rule was from the time she'd asked Buffy about it when she first joined the gang. Actually her exact question had been 'do you use a chemical product, or does your hair get blonder along the way because of a Slayer thing?' She never saw a room empty out that quick again.

"If you don't like it, then go. Let me rest in peace."

"No." Anya took a few steps further into the crypt and wished her heels didn't make so much of a racket on the stone floor.

"Didn't think it would be that easy. How about the scotch in the refrigerator, then?"

Anya sighed, but went to get the drink anyway. Spike stayed quiet while she searched for a couple of reasonably clean glasses. She finally found some and scooped them up in her right hand while she grabbed the bottle with her left. She walked over to him and held out the bottle. "Here."

Spike took it from Anya and pried the cork loose. He was about to drain the bottle when he saw the two glasses that Anya was still holding. "What, you want some too?"

"It would be the polite thing."

Spike snorted. "Like either of us care 'bout that," he said, but he took her glass and filled it anyway. She offered him the second glass. He just grinned and took a swig right from the bottle.

Anya made a face at him as she sat down on the couch next to his chair. She lifted her glass and gave it a sniff. To her surprise, the scotch actually smelled good, not at all like the back alley concoction she'd been expecting.

"Twenty years old. Paid a pretty penny for it, too." He shook his head and took another swig. "Never paid for a thing in the old days. Just took it. Damned rules."

Anya took a sip and the scotch burned in all the right ways on its way down. "And there are so many."

"'Course that only makes breaking them more fun." Spike gave her a knowing look.

Anya nodded and took another sip. "Most of the rules are stupid, anyway."

"Yeah." Spike finished off the bottle, but didn't look any happier. "You know what the worst thing is about being undead?"

"Drinking the blood? I don't know how you can stomach it. I'm so glad I was a vengeance demon, it was so much cleaner."

Spike shook his head and a faint smile pulled at his lips. "You get used to it. After a while it becomes like a fine drink. Except with blood the younger the better. To a point, anyway. I never drank babies like dear old dad. No, the worst thing is you can never get properly plowed. Only time I ever came close was the first time Dru left, and then I had to drink all the way from Brazil to Sunnyhell."

"The same's true with me and mine. The younger the better, not the drunk thing. No one hates like the young." She said it matter-of-factly and with a faint hint of professional pride. Then she realized what she was saying and the warmth vanished. She downed the rest of her glass in one swallow to try and get the feeling back, but it didn't help.

Spike didn't help either. "We're both damned, you know," he said and sunk deeper into his chair. "The fiery pits and all that rubbish."

"I know," Anya admitted, her voice small.

"Can't even fool ourselves with redemption. I'm not stupid. I can save the world from now to doomsday and it won't make up for what I did. And the worst thing is, until a few years ago, I didn't care."

"It was so much easier then, wasn't it?" Anya agreed, half sad that she'd lost that feeling and half sad that she'd ever had it. "At least you didn't fool yourself into thinking you were doing good. The Patron Saint of Scorned Women." She spat out her old title as though she was trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

Spike got up to get a second bottle from the refrigerator, then came back and filled Anya's glass again. He sat down and lifted the bottle in a toast, his eyes haunted. "To cruelty."

Anya lifted her glass and her voice cracked. "To murder."

"Horror."

"Torture."

"Hatred."

"Death."

"To brutality in every shape and form," Spike finished and downed his bottle while Anya did the same with her glass. "It didn't help, did it?"

"No," Anya answered with a shiver. This bottle of scotch did taste like it was made yesterday, but it didn't matter. "Though now I do feel woozy."

"Wish I did," Spike muttered as he balanced the bottle on the arm of his chair. "So much simpler in the old days."

"Until we came to Sunnydale." Anya fought back tears. "Where they took everything from us."

"Yeah. And what did we get in return? The illusion of redemption? Feh."

"Love," Anya answered for him and felt a flicker of warmth.

"That, too." Spike chuckled without humor. "She was almost mine, you know. Buffy."

"I know, but don't tell Xander."

Spike continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I worked it out a while back. You know we kissed the night we were singing. Busy night. Could've been the start of something. Then the night when Red took our memories I followed her to the Bronze."

"Stalked," Anya corrected without malice. "At least in this state."

"If it gets you through the night. Anyway, I was just about to make my move when you came out of nowhere and got to her first. I did a fade and waited. Figured you two would start screaming at each other and Buffy'd need a shoulder to cry on. It was quite a performance. Especially when you two got physical right in the middle of the club. And no mud in sight." Spike sighed once in disappointment. "I nearly did the noble thing when she slammed you into a table and almost gave you the business end of a stake."

"You?" Anya didn't even try to keep the doubt out of her voice.

"I can be noble," Spike protested. Then he shrugged it away. "When the price is right. But I didn't have to. Still don't know how you talked her down. Then you left together. I thought I'd just have to wait, but the next night Buffy came by and thanked me for helping her, but said the kiss was wrong."

Spike shook his head in disbelief. "She thanked me. Told her she knew what she could do if she really wanted to thank me, but she didn't even have the decency to hit me. I thought she'd come crawling back, but she didn't. Went to you two instead.

"And you know the worst thing. The thing that makes me want to stake myself? She's happy with you two. Happier than I could ever make her. Happier than I've ever seen her, even with the poofed knight. And now she's preggers and you lot are about to get married. Never thought it would last... Always thought I would get my chance..."

"So you've just been making time with Tara? Waiting for us to explode?" Anya asked in disgust as all the old vengeance demon instincts kicked in. When she realized what she was doing she felt even more disgusted, this time with herself.

"At first," Spike admitted without hesitation. "Ran into Tara one night at the Bronze and we cried into our beer. Then we did it again the next day. Third day she challenged me to a game of darts."

"Who won?" Anya asked, though she had a good idea.

"I did," Spike said and sounded offended at the question. "I have been throwing things for a century now. Give me a little credit. And while you're at it, get me another drink."

Anya didn't move this time and neither did Spike. Finally he just gave up. "Ah, no sense wasting all my good stuff in one night, anyway."

Anya dipped a finger into the last few drops of her scotch and ran it around the edge of her glass, just to listen to the crystal sing. "So what happened tonight?"

"What do you think happened?" Spike hissed. "I felt your baby. Yours and Xander's and Buffy's baby. Reminded me of everything I couldn't give her. Or Tara."

"So you went psycho?"

"If I'd gone psycho, you'd be dead. And me too, more than likely. I just took a page from your boy's book."

Anya's face darkened. "You're just jealous of him."

"Maybe, but at least my jokes are funny," Spike shot back.

"Do you love Tara?"

"Do you love Buffy? And Xander?" Spike didn't have to wait for an answer. "I loved each and every one of them. Cecily, Dru, Buffy and Tara. Despite what those musty old books say. Maybe being a vampire doesn't take away our souls, not completely. Just shuts them up."

"So why the big commotion?"

"'Cause sooner or later Tara's going to figure out what I can't give her. And I already know what she can't give me."

That shocked Anya into sitting almost ramrod-straight. "What?"

Spike seemed to sink deeper into himself. "Who am I?"

"What is this, a history test?"

"Really. Who am I?"

"William the Bloody. Spike. Dru's childe, Tara's lover. Any of these ring a bell?"

"I was - tried to be - a poet for Cecily, a demon for Dru, a man for Buffy, and a hero for Tara. So I'm unique. I'm the only vampire in the world who casts a reflection. Just my damned luck it's not mine."

"So, you're going to run?" Anya asked. "Take it from me. Doesn't help."

Spike shook his head and looked even more depressed. "I'm not. At first I was perfectly happy just having someone warm next to me, then we got to talking... Red was a bloody idiot for ever letting her go."

The hairs on the back of Anya's neck bristled at the bile she heard in Spike's voice. The vampire was the first person she'd heard in a long time who didn't sound sickeningly sweet when talking about Willow. "So you're not running away?"

Spike shot her a look. "Aren't you paying attention? If it was up to me… But nothing is, not really. You remember that incident with Travers?"

"Where Tara went to that scary place?"

"Yeah. Scared her more than anyone else. Thought I'd gotten 'er off the idea that she was out of control, though." He shook his head and finished off the second bottle. "I'm the biggest idiot 'ere. And that's saying something."

"Hey!"

Spike smiled and took the empty bottle by its neck. "I just didn't want to see it. Today she froze when one of those muck demons attacked Faith. That's why I knocked the new-but-not-improved Slayer out of the way. Though it was a blast." Spike's mood seesawed again. "She's still afraid of 'erself. That's why she's…"

"What?"

"Nothing. Forget it."

Anya almost pried, but all the openness of a moment before was gone. "So what's that have to do with…"

Spike shrugged. "Nothing. Tell your mates not to worry about ol' Spike. 'e can take care of 'imself."

"Do you know your accent gets worse when you've been drinking?"

"If you think this is bad, you should 'ear Angel. Sounds like those Lucky Charms commercials."

Anya felt a little better hearing him joke. "So you're not going to do something stupid?"

"Nothing I can think of," Spike said.

Anya nodded and got up. She managed to get over to the door without swaying too much, which thrilled her no end. But she stopped before she got to the door and looked back in worry. "Did you mean what you said? About us being damned?"

Spike shrugged. "Does it matter? Nothing we can do about it."

Anya nodded and walked out the door. She jumped when it slammed shut behind her. She shivered from a chill that had nothing to do with the night and wrapped her arms around herself, but it didn't help any more than the scotch had. When she looked up she saw all her friends waiting outside the door, armed to the teeth, with Buffy and Xander right up front.

"Are you all right?" Buffy asked as she took a step forward and looked Anya over from head to toe, trying to see if there was even a scratch on her. She let out a soft sigh of relief when she didn't see anything.

Xander saw the look in Anya's eyes before Buffy did, and his hand tightened around a stake. "Did he do anything?"

"What? No, he didn't…" Anya tried to blink away the tears before they gave her away, but to no avail.

"Is everything good in there?" Faith asked in worry.

"As good as it is out here," Anya said and tried to smile, but it was too much. She fell forward into Buffy and Xander's arms. "Take me home," she begged through her tears, which felt so odd. It was only the third time in three years that she'd cried; the first two were when Joyce died and when Xander left.

Buffy and Xander hugged her tight and led her away without saying a word. They were halfway to the cemetery gates when she heard Faith say, "You think I should?"

Then Giles answered, "No. I doubt that he's a danger to anyone but himself now."

Anya barely remembered getting home and didn't have a clue as to how she'd ended up in her white cotton pajamas. It almost seemed as if she'd teleported herself from the graveyard to her bedroom, which was another trick she missed from the old days. But it didn't really matter, not anymore.

She was sitting in their bed, her knees pulled to her chest and her chin on her knees, staring down at her red toenail polish. She wondered if all those Sunday morning television sermons were right, if the hell fires had the same dark red shade to them.

Then she felt something tugging gently at her hair, over and over again. She ignored it as long as she could, until her curiosity finally got the better of her. She turned just enough to see Buffy sitting behind her with an old faux ivory brush in her hand. Buffy smiled at her as she ran the brush through Anya's hair again, but didn't say a word.

Anya tried to smile, to say something to get rid of the worry in Buffy's eyes, but she couldn't. She wished, not for the first time, that she could joke her way through her pain the way Xander did his. She knew why he did it, not to make himself feel better but to help everyone else, but her jokes were never any good. So she just sat there in silence.

She also sometimes thought that Xander could hear her thinking about him, because he chose that moment to walk through the door. He had three spoons in one hand and a carton of ice cream in the other. "Triple chocolate with brownies. There's so much sugar in this baby that I'm the only man who has ever eaten an entire carton and lived to tell the tale. Guaranteed to make you feel better." He set the ice cream down on the bed, right in front of Anya's feet, but she didn't move a muscle. Finally he frowned at her. "At least it will if you eat some of it."

"It's good," Buffy gently prodded as she ran the brush through Anya's hair again. "Better than what Spike gave you."

That sunk in. Anya half-turned to Buffy. "How did you know?"

Buffy smiled and waved her hand in front of her face. "I can smell it on your breath."

"Oh," Anya said and made a face at the idea of stinkiness, especially if it came from her.

"You might as well tell us," Xander said as he sunk down on the bed in front of her. "You know, we have ways of making you talk."

Anya sighed and broke down. "Why do you let me stay?"

Xander and Buffy stared at Anya, then looked at each other, and then went back to staring at Anya. "Because we love you, you know that," Xander said.

"But I'm a monster. A damned thing."

"No, you're not," Buffy said as she put down the brush and scooted around the bed so that the three of them were sitting in a circle.

"I am," Anya insisted. "You know what I was."

"That was a long time ago," Xander protested, but his eyes were on the bedspread.

"Four years isn't a long time. Not even to you," Anya countered. "Willow told me once how you treated Angel, and he didn't hurt nearly as many people as I did."

"I hate it when people throw me back at me," Xander muttered. Then his eyes lit up. "He was still a vampire, and you're human."

"Is that all?" Anya asked. "I'm okay because I have a heartbeat and get sweaty and Angel doesn't?"

"No… Yes… No…" Xander offered, but he didn't have an answer any more than she did. So he reached, "You've never tried to kill my friends, that's a plus."

Anya finally tore her eyes off the red toenail polish so she could look into his eyes. "I tried to kill you."

Xander shrugged and tried to laugh it off. "So? Everyone's tried to kill me once. I think it's part of the Scooby initiation."

"This isn't funny, Xander," Anya shouted at him as all her anger finally found a release. She slid her legs down so that she was sitting cross-legged and waved her hands over her body. "Isn't this why you love me? Because of how I look? Admit it, if I was all wrinkly you wouldn't have given me a second look."

"I'm not joking." The smile dropped off Xander's face like it'd never been there. "At first, yeah. I went out with you 'cause you were beautiful, but do you really think I would've stuck around for three years if that was it?"

Anya stuck her chin out. "Why not? I've seen it happen."

"No, you saw the absolute worst of humanity, men and women, for a thousand years. You never saw the people who worked out their problems. Who never needed vengeance." He grabbed her hands and squeezed down on them for emphasis, but was careful not to hurt her. "I love you because you're you. Because you're just as crazy as I am."

Anya yanked her hands out of his and scrambled away from him until her back was flat against the wall. "But you don't know ME! I was a monster for a thousand years! You've helped kill beings who haven't done a tenth of what I've done."

"You're right," Buffy said, finally speaking up. "You were a monster." Anya looked at her in surprise and Xander in betrayal.

"Buff, really not helping," Xander whispered.

Buffy ignored him and kept her eyes locked on Anya. "Key word, were. Now you have a chance, just like Angel." Saying her first love's name hurt, even after all this time, but she pressed on. "You don't think he went through this? He told me once that he could never wash the blood off his hands, but that didn't mean he could stop trying."

Anya shook her head. "But I'm not even trying. He's a hero, I just run a store."

Xander jumped in. "So? I'm just a carpenter, but we're all fighting the good fight."

"You didn't kill anyone."

"Is that a fact?" Xander asked her, his voice tight. "What about when I summoned the singing demon? Like it or not, people died because I was an ass. And then there's Wi…" He tried, but he couldn't say her name, not now.

"That's different. The demon was a mistake, and you only did what you did to Willow to save me."

"I didn't stab Faith to save the world." Buffy tried to wipe the feeling of the knife in her hand off on the bedspread. "Or to save Angel, even. I wanted her to hurt as much as she hurt me. So we all have blood on our hands."

Anya shuddered. "But not like me."

"What do you want, forgiveness?" Buffy asked and Anya didn't meet her eyes. She wanted it, but knew she didn't deserve to ask. She didn't have to.

"That's not a problem. I forgave you a long time ago," Xander said.

"You can't," Anya said it in a low, pathetic moan.

"Sure I can. I was almost one of your victims, and one of your victim's victims, so I count. And I forgive you."

There was hope in Anya's eyes when she looked up again, but it flickered as unsteady as a candle's flame. "What about everyone else?"

Buffy reached out and took the ex-demon by the hand. "You want their forgiveness, then earn it."

"How?"

Xander took Anya's other hand. "By doing what you're doing. Be a good person, help save the world, maybe give to a charity every now and then."

"Give?" Anya said in a new panic. "But it's…"

"Anya," Buffy and Xander said together.

Anya sighed and rolled her eyes. "All right."

They sat there quietly on the bed, still holding hands. "Just think," Xander began, "we have so many issues that any one of the three of us could make a shrink cry." Buffy and Anya shared a glance, and then reached for the pillows that were scattered around the bed. "Come on, ladies, it was a jo…" A pillow, the first of many, hit him in the chest and cut off the rest of the sentence.

The pillow fight helped a bit, not as much as the ice cream; especially after they found a way to eat it that didn't require spoons, but it did help a bit. Still, it was a long time until Anya went to sleep that night, even with her two loves wrapped protectively around her, and she knew she wouldn't have slept at all if she were anywhere else. Her last thoughts were of Spike, wondering if Tara was doing the same thing with him right now. But she somehow knew the vampire was still sitting alone in the dark, staring at the snow on the television screen.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

16 weeks after Black and White

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

That was the thought that ran through Buffy's head over and over as she half-listened to the wedding ceremony. It wasn't supposed to be like this, not for her. She had given up on the idea of a happy ending when her mom first got sick. She wasn't supposed to be getting married.

She was supposed to be in the night, fighting for her life until it didn't matter any more, not standing on a beach in the middle of the day with sand between her toes and the sea breeze rustling the white silk veil that was woven into her hair.

She had given up on love after Riley left, thought it was done with her. Had been more than terrified that all she could find was someone as deep in the darkness as she was, and that sex would just turn into another kind of death. She half turned to look at the two people who were standing next to her, the two who had shown her how wrong she was.

Anya looked radiant in a white, strapless gown that stopped just below her knees. The wind was playing with her veil just as much as it was Buffy's, but the ex-demon didn't even notice. She probably wouldn't notice anything less than an apocalypse, or Xander's parents suddenly appearing.

Xander stood between the two of them tugging absently at his white shirt and slacks. Buffy fought back a laugh because he was right, he did look like he was about to go play tennis. He also looked as nervous as she felt, but it wasn't the oh-my-God-which-way-to-the-airport kind of nerves, more his usual fear that he'd screw something up. He must've seen Buffy looking at him, because he glanced over and gave her the confident grin that she saw so rarely.

Buffy grinned back as the last few butterflies flew away and turned to Rebecca, who was another surprise. She was barely thirty with short brown hair and seemed even less a witch – much less the head of a coven - than Willow or Tara, if that was possible. She'd arrived in Sunnydale two days ago, and she and Giles had been nearly inseparable ever since. Now she was dressed in a black dress that ran down to her bare feet and was reciting the ceremony entirely from memory.

Speaking of which, Buffy tuned back into it just in time.

"All things in Nature are circular - night becomes day, day becomes night and night becomes day again. The moon waxes and wanes and waxes again. There is Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and then the Spring returns. These things are part of the Great Mysteries. Buffy, Xander, Anya, did you bring your symbols of these Great Mysteries of Life?"

Buffy nodded and swallowed hard as she half turned to Dawn, who was wearing a light blue sundress. Dawn rubbed her eyes with a tissue one last time before she handed over the simple gold band to Buffy.

Buffy took the ring, then turned and took Xander's hand. It felt rough, hardened by all these months as a carpenter, and so big in her hands. She took the ring and slid it over his finger. They had spent weeks working on vows, but in the end decided on one word, the only promise that mattered to any of them. "Forever."

Xander nodded and whispered the word back, "Forever." Buffy let his hand go and watched as Faith handed him another ring. Then he turned to Anya and repeated the vow as he placed the ring on her hand.

Anya's grin grew even wider, if that was possible, as she stared at her glittering ring. Then she shook herself and made her promise to Xander. Spike took a half-step forward. He was the only one who looked out of place, with his black trench coat, gloves, jeans and motorcycle helmet. The only color on him was the thick, almost blood red shirt he had on under the coat. He handed the ring to Anya and stepped back next to Tara, who was still clutching a tissue.

Anya's hand felt as smooth as Xander's was rough as it wrapped around Buffy's.

"Forever," Anya promised as she slipped the ring over Buffy's finger.

"Forever," Buffy swore.

Rebecca turned and looked over the group that surrounded them. "If anyone present here today knows of any reason why these vows should not be made, speak now."

All eyes turned to Spike. He managed to glare at them all, even through the dark visor. "What?" He asked with a hint of a snarl in his voice. "Even I'm not that crass."

Rebecca fought back a smile while everyone else sighed with relief. "Then let our friends and our Gods bear witness that Buffy, Anya and Xander are joined in love, joy and freedom.

"Now seal your promise with a kiss."

Buffy leaned over and gave Anya a soft kiss on the lips, then they both turned to Xander. The kisses were far more chaste than their usual, but just as special.

Rebecca took a step back and proclaimed. "Let those assembled here bear witness that these three are joined in love. May their love partake of the beauty, majesty and power of the sacred land and may they grow together in wisdom, joy and harmony. My own blessings and the blessings of all those assembled be with you. The blessings of the Goddess and the God be with you. The blessings of the ancestors be with you. And with all that grows from your union. So be it."

"So be it!" The group shouted with Dawn's voice by far the loudest, but Tara and Faith weren't too far behind. The threesome had just turned when they were pelted by rice.

Buffy let out a laugh and tried to get away from the grainy shower, but Xander wrapped his arm around her and Anya and puffed up. "That the best you got?"

Dawn and Faith surprisingly nodded as they crushed their empty bags of rice. "Yeah. It's the best we've got," Dawn answered, but didn't lose her grin.

"But not the best I've got," Rebecca said behind them with a lilt in her voice.

Anya looked over at Buffy. "That doesn't sound good."

"No," Buffy agreed and tried to pull away, but Xander didn't relax his grip.

"Bring it on," he challenged and stood still even as everyone else took a step back.

Buffy felt the first grain of rice land on her shoulder and winced, but nothing else happened. "That's it?" When no one answered she turned and looked over her shoulder at Rebecca, who was just standing there with her arms crossed. Then the witch glanced up and Buffy followed her eyes. That was when she saw the cloud of rice that was hanging over their heads, just waiting. "Uh, oh."

The rice dropped.

The rice was an inch deep by the time the shower was done. Buffy brushed it out of her hair in thick handfuls and tried to glare at Dawn and Faith, but it was hard to do between the giggles. "I assume this was your idea?"

"You're the one who wanted a shower," Faith said, barely able to look serious. Dawn didn't bother, she was laughing so hard she almost fell over.

Anya brushed at her hair and shrugged. "It's still more pleasant weather than the last wedding." Then she cocked her eyebrow at Xander. "Though it would be nice if you didn't challenge the extremely powerful witch."

"Especially when they're as creative as you," Giles added warmly to Rebecca.

Rebecca grinned and walked across the rice puddle to wrap her arms around him. "Please, Rupert. I was born old, you're the one with a wild streak."

Spike snorted. "Yeah, he's a wild one. Wanker doesn't even have a speeding ticket."

Giles was about to reply when Rebecca cut him off. "It's his fault that the London police are looking for us."

"Why? He have an overdue library book?" Spike asked.

Buffy had to agree with Spike; the Ripper days were one thing, but today?

But there must have been something, because Giles pulled off his glasses and started to furiously scrub them clean. "We would've been fine if you'd kept the masking spell in place."

"I was a little distracted. Besides, I'm the one who said Buckingham Palace was a bad idea. Not that I'm complaining." With that, Rebecca stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Giles. When she pulled away she added, almost breathlessly, "And where on earth did you learn that trick with your tongue?"

Giles actually blushed and looked away from the group. Anya brightened immediately. "I bet it was one of mine." She glanced over at Buffy and Xander. "I told you he was listening."

"I don't think you left him much of a choice," Buffy murmured.

"Who wants to get cake and pretend this conversation never happened?" Xander asked with far too much cheer. Everyone raised their hands, even Giles. "Then it's decided."

The trio went up the hill hand in hand to where they had a couple of picnic tables waiting, already pushed together under the shade of a group of palm trees whose branches were covered with long, multicolor ribbons that seemed to dance in the air with even the smallest gust of wind.

The cake was waiting in a box on top of the table, next to a pile of paper plates and cups. Next to that was a large cooler of punch and thermos of blood for Spike, and a small boom box sitting under the table.

Soon everyone was settled, the threesome sitting alone on one side of the table and the other six sitting across from them, with Dawn and Faith sitting in the middle. Spike took a look around to see if he was under enough shade and then slowly pulled off his helmet. When he didn't burst into flames he put the helmet down on the table next to him, just in case. Xander opened the box and carefully slid the triple-layer white cake out while Dawn started handing out the paper plates.

"Nice to use one of these babies on something that isn't fighting back," Xander said as he picked up a large serving knife. He raised his eyebrow at his two wives. "Ready?" Buffy and Anya put their hands over his and they cut the first piece of cake together.

It took a few minutes, but they finally divided up the cake and passed it out. "You looking forward to your week at Casa de Sol?" Faith asked around a mouthful of cake.

"Oh yes. Though I doubt that we'll see much of the sun," Anya said as she turned and grinned knowingly at Buffy and Xander.

Xander took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Somehow, I think you're right."

"We will, at least once," Buffy said. Xander and Anya turned to look at her in surprise. "I want to fit into a bikini one more time before…" She glanced down at her stomach. The small bulge there was almost completely hidden under the dress, but she knew what was coming.

"Don't worry, Buff. No matter what, you'll still look great to me." Xander put his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.

"Me too," Anya added. "Besides, your bikini's very pleasing."

"And you say all I talk about is sex," Faith told the three of them.

"Sad to say, you've been decrowned," Xander told her. He raised Anya's hand high in the air. "Meet the new and undefeated champion."

"We'll see about that." Faith sniffed, and then stabbed another mouthful of cake with her fork. "Still, it'd be nice to get a couple of days off when you get back. I was thinking of showing Dawn some of the wild side before she went back to school."

Dawn all but glowed. "Yeah, can we? Just a day or two, or maybe a week."

Buffy shook her head. "No. I'm not going to let Faith drag you to bars or strip clubs."

"Aw, come on, B. She's going to do it sooner or later, so it might as well be with someone you trust," Faith said with just enough of a smirk to show she was kidding, so Buffy let the half-dozen trust jokes she had drop.

"Please, Buffy?" Dawn begged. "I'll get you an extra special present."

"Present?" Anya perked up at the word.

"Well," Buffy began to break down. It had been a hell of a summer, and Dawn could use a break… Besides, she was in too good a mood today to say no.

Xander put his arm around Buffy. "We can handle patrols for a day or two. Besides, we'll still have Tara and…

"I won't be here when you get back," Tara said abruptly.

"What?" Half the group said in unison, but Giles and Rebecca just sat silently while Spike took a long gulp of his blood.

Tara looked up from the cake she'd been forking to death. "I'm going back with Rebecca to England."

"But… why?" Dawn asked as her eyes grew large with worry.

Tara couldn't meet her gaze. "I need to. To learn how to control the magic. So I don't…" Her voice cut off.

It took a while before anyone said anything. "Can't you learn here? I mean, Hellmouth. Got to be some quality teachers of the black arts here," Faith asked.

Tara shook her head. "Most of the people around here like their black arts too black. Besides," she glanced over at Rebecca and Giles, "I want to be with someone I trust."

"Which isn't me," Spike said with finality as he finally turned to her so she could see the hurt that wasn't in his voice.

"I've told you that it doesn't have anything to do with you. Why won't you come with me?" Tara sounded like she had already asked the question a hundred times.

"'Cause you have your journey, and I have mine." Spike answered, and he sounded just as worn as Tara. He looked over at Anya. "Past time I figured out who I was. So I won't be here either."

Giles put down his fork. "What if we need you?"

Spike shrugged. "Don't, really. Faith's a big Slayer. She can take care of herself."

Dawn looked at Spike and Tara in horror as it all sank in. "So you're both going? And you decided to tell us today?"

Buffy understood the hurt in her sister's voice. It didn't seem fair to gain two siblings and lose two of her closest friends in the same day.

"I'll be back," Tara said quickly. Then she glanced over at Rebecca and added in a whisper, "Eventually."

"Tell you what," Spike shrugged off his trench coat and wrapped it around Dawn's shoulders, "You know I'll be back for this. So take care of it."

Dawn almost crushed the leather in her grip. "When?"

Spike sighed and picked up his helmet. "Sorry, Niblet. Just stayed for the party." He didn't look at Tara, and Tara was just as careful not to look at him. He raised his thermos of blood in a toast to the threesome. "Take care of each other. And congratulations." His last words were for Buffy. "Looks like you finally got what you deserved, Slayer."

With that Spike downed the last of the blood, put the helmet back on, and walked into the sun. They watched him as he got onto his motorcycle and rode away.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually going to miss the fangless wonder," Xander said when Spike was finally out of sight. He looked around at all the depressed faces and added in a mutter, "But he is a bit of a downer."

"I hate to be rude," Rebecca said, "but there's still the matter of the first dance."

"Yes," Giles said and picked up the boom box that had been hidden under the table and pushed play. "Won't be proper without a dance."

Buffy saw what they were doing and decided to play along. She stood up and leaned down between Xander and Anya. "Come on, just like we practiced." She led them out onto the sand and waited. Giles started the boom box, but looked confused when Russian folk music started. He looked absolutely lost when they started the dance. It was a spectacle of spinning and ducking under joined hands. When the music finally finished they turned and bowed to the stunned audience.

"What the hell was that?" Tara asked in shock.

Dawn leaned over to Faith. "You keep them here, I'm going to call an ambulance."

"It's a troika," Anya said as she hummed the music to herself. It took her a second to realize that everyone still looked lost, so she explained. "An old Russian dance. I learned it sometime last century." It still didn't help. She crossed her arms and glared. "We've been practicing for a month!"

Faith shook her head and went back to her cake. "Yeah, and I'm the one they said was crazy."

"It was very…" Giles began, but couldn't think of a word.

"Interesting," Rebecca saved him. She looked over at the boom box in awe and horror. "But there are some songs on this that are more…"

Buffy nodded. "Normal? Yeah. We just thought it'd be fun."

Giles nodded. "And it certainly… Shall we get started?"

Buffy nodded, and then turned to her two spouses. "You two go ahead, you still owe each other one." Xander and Anya gave her a quick look, but nodded. Buffy leaned back against one of the trees and watched as the two of them slide together. They danced in the soft joy that had drawn her to them in the first place.

"It's a beautiful day," Giles said as he walked up next to her with two cups of punch in his hand.

Buffy took one and sipped. "Yeah. Everything I ever hoped for," she said without taking her eyes off Xander and Anya.

"For me as well."

"Bet you never thought you'd get to give away two brides on one day."

Giles grinned and shook his head. "No. I never thought that Anya wanted me to."

Buffy gave him a look. "She was going to ask you for the first wedding, but…"

Giles sighed. "And all I sent were flowers."

"She understood. We all did." Buffy rubbed her elbow and looked anywhere but at him. "And I always wanted you to, for me."

Giles put his arm around her. "And I always hoped."

Buffy looked over at Rebecca, who was still sitting at the table talking to Faith, Dawn and Tara. "I thought you said you didn't have anyone special left in England."

Giles let out a breath. "Rebecca's a very good friend," he saw the joke coming and cut her off with a look, "but that's all either of us want. She isn't family."

Buffy smiled and rested her head against his shoulder. "I feel sorry for Tara and Spike. Do you think they'll really come back?"

She felt his sigh. "I truly don't know. Tara will almost certainly visit, but she has so much to learn. And Spike…"

"He told me once that he can't leave Sunnydale, not really."

"It doesn't look like anyone can. Though maybe that's for the best, at least for some of us."

Buffy was just about to ask him what he meant when she felt the finger tapping at her shoulder. She turned and saw Xander standing with his hand out to her. "May I have this dance?"

Buffy grinned and took his hand. "But of course." They went out onto the sand and started dancing. Then she heard the music and smiled. "But I don't think we're supposed to slow dance to Aerosmith."

Xander chuckled. "Why not? We've broken every other rule." He gave her a whirl, then went back to the slow swaying.

She sunk against him. This was something else that wasn't supposed to be. Xander was supposed to be like a brother and as dateable as Giles, at least that's what she'd always thought. She could be such an idiot. Then something came to her and she lifted her head off his chest so she could look into his eyes. "Looks like you finally got your dance."

"Sure does, doesn't it?" He leaned down and kissed her, a promise of things to come. But when he finally pulled away he sighed. "Though I still wish that we had found a Gonzo impersonator to marry us." Buffy slapped him lightly against the chest just for show, then she leaned against him again and let herself get lost in his heartbeat.

Buffy almost didn't want to let go when the song ended, but that changed when she saw who was waiting. Xander stepped away and went back to the table for more of the cake, but she could feel him watching. "So was it everything you hoped?" She asked Anya as she wrapped her arms around Anya's bare shoulders and Anya's hands went to her waist. It was another thing she'd never have thought would happen, and it wasn't the demon issue. Though if she was honest with herself, there had been a notion or two about Faith before...

"Very much," Anya answered as she moved closer to Buffy. "Even though there was that rough patch in the middle. What about you?"

"No."

Anya pulled back in surprise and hurt. "No?"

"Even better," Buffy answered and kissed her ex-demon.

When the dances were finally done, there was only one last thing to do. "Pictures!" Dawn said brightly as she pulled a small camera out of her purse. Buffy and Anya stood on either side of Xander with their hands up to show off their rings while he wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

"Smile!" Dawn said brightly as her finger twitched on the trigger.

6 months after Black and White

"If the complaints against you are false, then what's this?" The woman from Child Welfare had a gleam in her eye more often seen in children who pulled the wings off flies as she reached into her briefcase. She found what she was looking for and shoved it into Buffy's face.

Buffy just stared at the cheap copy of her wedding picture, her mind frozen as her life crumbled.

Mrs. Keller put the picture down on the coffee table, closed her briefcase, and stood up. "And for you're information, a deviant lifestyle counts as emotional abuse. Dawn will be taken to a foster home by the end of the week. And…" The woman stopped and glanced down at Buffy's large stomach with glee. "Your child will be given to a responsible family. Thank you, Ms. Summers, that's all for today. I'll show myself out. Oh, and you can keep the picture, I have copies."

It wasn't supposed to be this way.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Hello, Ms. Summers," the woman from Child Welfare said when Buffy opened the door.

"Mrs. Kroeger," Buffy said with her best – and fakest - smile. "Hard to believe that this is the last time we'll see each other. The past few years just flew by, didn't they?"

"Oh, yes." Mrs. Kroeger's phony smile somehow managed to outdo Buffy's. "Shall we get down to business?"

"Sure. Do you mind if we go to the living room? The dining room chairs have gotten a bit uncomfortable lately." Buffy explained without looking down, another of the wonders of pregnancy. She wasn't house-like yet, but there was a cottage-like dimension now.

"Not at all." Mrs. Kroeger looked around the house as Buffy led her to the couch. "I see your new house is coming along nicely."

Buffy smiled for real this time as she settled into the recliner. "Yeah. It already feels like home."

Mrs. Kroeger glanced upstairs. "A four bedroom?"

"No, just three. Though we're thinking about building a new room in the basement."

Mrs. Kroeger settled down on the couch and pulled a pad out of her briefcase. "I see. Do you mind if I ask how you can afford it?"

"Most of the money came from selling the old house, and between my job, my boyfriend and our roommate's we were able to scrape up the rest of the money. Besides, my boyfriend's a carpenter, and I can tell you this place didn't look so good when we bought it."

"I see. And what are your boyfriend and roommate's names?"

Buffy hesitated for a second before she answered. "Alexander Harris and Anya Jenkins. My best friend," she added, anticipating the next question.

"I assume that Mr. Harris is the father of your child?" Mrs. Kroeger asked as she wrote Buffy's answers down.

"Yeah."

"But wasn't he also Ms. Jenkins fiancée?"

Buffy felt a hefty jolt of paranoia and tried to figure out how on Earth she had learned that. "They reconciled. Sorta. How…?"

Mrs. Krueger just shrugged. "It's not important. I do have a few more questions, though."

Buffy scowled at the thought of going through more of this little Inquisition. "Why do you want to know? I thought all we were going to do was sign some papers saying that Dawn and I aren't on your watch list any more."

Mrs. Kroeger had the grace to seem apologetic. "It was, but something's come up."

That gave Buffy a six-vampires-and-a-demon Slayer-sense tingle. "Like what?"

"For one thing," she paused as she pulled a file out of her briefcase and glanced it over. "Your sister was spotted in the Kraken Bar after midnight on August 2 this summer in the company of a Faith Williams."

Buffy crossed her arms and leaned back. "Faith's car broke down and she needed to use the phone. Would it have been better if she'd left Dawn alone in the car?"

Mrs. Kroeger didn't touch that. "That's all well and good, Ms. Summers, but it doesn't explain why you left your sister in the company of a known felon."

"She's an old family friend." Buffy said, barely keeping her temper under control. Even on the best of days the woman managed to get under her skin, and today wasn't anywhere near that good, at least not now.

The woman glanced down at the file she had in front of her, not that she had to, she had it all memorized, it just let her savor the moment. "Assault, breaking and entering, burglary. You have some friends."

Buffy ground her teeth together. "She did her time and had counseling, Mrs. Kroeger. She's a different person now."

"I'm sure." Mrs. Kroeger had a bored tone that said she'd heard that a thousand times before. "And you're not protecting her just because you have an almost identical record? Though, to be fair, she wasn't a runaway or suspected of arson. Or a suspect in a murder investigation."

"Murder?"

"When you were found kneeling over a girl who was killed in the Sunnydale High Library. Her throat was slit, I believe."

Buffy wanted to punch the smirk off the woman's face for cheapening Kendra's death like that, but she managed to stay calm and fist-free. Though she couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. "I was trying to help her. The police said that was a gang attack on the school, and I was never charged with anything else, and aren't those records supposed to be sealed?" Buffy suddenly remembered and flashed a triumphant smile at the woman.

Mrs. Kroeger didn't flinch. "Don't lecture to me, Ms. Summers. You're lucky we let you be Dawn's guardian for this long. I don't know what your mother was thinking, trusting you with so much responsibility when it's clear you can't handle it."

That was enough for Buffy. She jumped to her feet and glared down at the pompous woman. "Dawn's happy, her grades are up and her teachers are thrilled with her. I told you why she was in the bar, something that your source didn't seem to bother with. So are we done?"

"No," Mrs. Kroeger's voice gained a steel-like hardness. "That isn't the only complaint. And it's not the worst."

"What? Did Dawn jaywalk? Litter?"

"This is serious, Ms. Summers. You're only making things worse. For yourself, Dawn, and for Mr. Harris and Ms. Jenkins."

Now Buffy's stomach clutched. "Why?" She hesitated as she asked and was suddenly happy she'd remembered to take off her wedding band.

"Because they were also named in the complaint."

"What? That's crazy… Who?"

"Those records are sealed."

"Nice to know some of them are," Buffy muttered

"Don't get flippant with me, young lady," Mrs. Kroeger snapped. "If the complaints against you are false, then what's this?" She had a gleam in her eye more often seen in children who pulled the wings off flies as she reached into her briefcase. She found what she was looking for and shoved it into Buffy's face.

Buffy just stared at the cheap copy of her wedding picture.

Mrs. Kroeger put the picture down on the coffee table and closed her briefcase. "For your information, a deviant lifestyle counts as emotional abuse." The woman stood up. "There will be a hearing by the end of the week, and I'm sure Dawn will be taken to a foster home immediately after. And…" She stopped and glanced down at Buffy's large stomach with glee, "your child will be taken at birth. Thank you, Ms. Summers, that's all for today. I'll show myself out. And you can keep the picture, I have copies."

Buffy stared down at the three smiling faces and just felt numb. After fifteen minutes she finally managed to force herself to her feet. She jammed the photograph into her purse as she went to get a coat, even though it was eighty degrees outside, and walked out of her home in a daze.

Xander barely managed to swat aside the first blow, but was nowhere near as lucky with the second. It hit him hard in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him, even through the chest pad he was wearing. But fortunately fate, or a finicky Watcher, stepped in before he got hit again.

"You're still dropping your left shoulder," Giles told Faith, frustration coloring his voice.

"She seemed fine to me," Xander said as he stepped back stiffly, more from weight of all the pads than any injury, though he was going to have a couple of grand bruises for the next few days.

Faith scowled at Giles and brushed the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. "Hey, I'm trying, all right?"

"No, it's not 'all right.' If it were, you wouldn't have needed thirty stitches last week," Giles said.

Xander winced as Faith rubbed her shoulder. There wasn't even a scar now, but the vampire had sliced her arm almost from elbow to shoulder with a pocketknife. She'd still managed to dust him with her good arm, but had needed Xander to get her out of the cemetery before anyone else got a whiff of injured Slayer.

"He just got lucky," Faith muttered.

"Vampires should never get lucky. If they do, you die."

"I get it! I screwed up and almost died, happy now?" Faith shouted at him as she spun around and slammed her fist into the punching bag. The chain suspending the bag groaned from the sudden blow but somehow managed to hold together.

Giles sighed as he walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. She tensed and crossed her arms. "I'm sorry if that came out harsh, but it's true."

Faith let her frustration out with another punch to the bag. "I know," she muttered as she turned to face him, but didn't meet his eyes. "I know all that."

Giles nodded at her in pride and stepped back. "Then let's go again. Assuming Xander's ready?"

"Ready, willing, and far more than able," Xander answered.

Faith grinned at him. "You think you can handle a Slayer?"

"Have been for almost three years now. Giles can't take the beating he used to. Too many whacks to the head."

"You know that's not what I meant," Faith told him.

"That's all you're getting out of me…" Xander began and crossed his heart.

Giles let out a sigh of relief. "Thank the Lord. Now, shall we get started?"

"…but you know who to talk to if you want the dirt," Xander finished.

Faith nodded. "Yeah, yeah. But I think your girl's busy now."

"Or not," Giles muttered.

"I think she's just slacking," Dawn spoke up for the first time. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her homework spread out in front of her. She had Spike's coat wrapped around her, even though it was at least two sizes too big, and the leather formed a black puddle around her. She wore it everywhere but school - and that was only because it wasn't allowed there

Faith glared down at the girl. "And who asked you, little Miss Muffet?"

Dawn grinned up at the Slayer. "No one. I'm a teenager; I don't have to wait for anyone to ask. Slacker."

"Got you there," Xander told Faith.

"Stuff it," Faith snapped at him before she went back to Dawn. "Like you can do any better."

Dawn grinned and all but leapt to her feet. "Bet I could. Better than you, anyway."

"Oh, yeah? Prove it," Faith was grinning as she walked back over the mat.

Dawn shrugged off Spike's coat and brought her hands up in defense. "Slacker."

"Key girl."

"Mooch."

"Watcher's pet."

"I got ten bucks on Dawn," Xander whispered to Giles.

Giles seemed to think it over, then shook his head and stepped between the two girls. "That's enough."

"Aw," they said together and relaxed back to what passed for normal.

"I mean it." Giles turned to Faith. "I don't mind you teaching Dawn some elementary moves, but challenging her to a fight is a bit much."

"I know," Dawn smirked. "I'd totally kick her ass."

Giles almost grinned, but caught himself just in time.

Xander didn't even bother to try. "That's telling her," he said as he high-fived Dawn.

Faith snorted. "You wish."

"You know," Dawn said, a hand on her hip.

Giles shook his head in defeat and let them bicker for a few more minutes before he tried again. "We still have another hour of practice," Giles told Faith. "Assuming you two are done."

"For now," Faith told him as she glared at Dawn. Dawn just grinned at the Slayer and went back to her homework. "Where were we?"

Giles hid his relief. "You keep dropping your left shoulder. It leaves…"

"Xander! Giles!" He heard Anya call from up front.

"Why do I even bother?" Giles muttered to himself.

"I'll go," Xander said. "Probably just someone trying to get their money back. So stay, lecture." He unhooked the padding, dropped it onto a table, and walked to the door.

"I do not lecture!" Giles shouted after him. "I guide, instruct, teach."

"You lecture, just admit it," Xander shot back as he opened the door to the sales floor. He looked around, nothing looked broken, no one was screaming, and there wasn't anything demonic in sight - at least anything not for sale. All good signs. Though all the customers did seem to be leaving. "Tell me you didn't do another spontaneous price hike, Ahn. You know those never…" Xander's voice died when he saw Anya, who was standing in front of the counter, with her arms around Buffy. Anya looked scared, but Buffy's face was as empty as a Sunnydale grave. He turned and called over his shoulder, "Giles, you better get out here," then he walked up to Buffy and Anya and reached out to touch Buffy's chin, "What is it?"

"I don't know," Anya said to him. She reached up and brushed her fingers through Buffy's hair. "What is it, sweetie?"

"I screwed it all up," Buffy said, her voice flat.

Xander took a half step forward. "Screwed what up?" Then his face went white. "Is… Did something happen to the baby?"

Anya's face went so pale that she would've made Casper proud, but Buffy shook her head. Xander and Anya barely had time to share a sigh of relief before Buffy pushed past them and wrapped her arms around Dawn, who had hurried out of the training room with Giles and Faith right behind her. "I'm so sorry, Dawnie," Buffy whispered as she tightened her grip around her sister.

"Okay, now I'm really freaking. What happened?" Dawn asked Xander and Anya as she put her arms around Buffy, and looked a bit more freaked when she realized they didn't know.

"Let her sit down," Giles said, then he turned to Faith. "Shut the blinds and put up the Closed sign." Faith nodded and ran to the door while Anya, Xander and Dawn gently moved Buffy over to the research table.

Once everyone was settled Giles leaned towards Buffy. "Now, what happened?"

Buffy sniffed hard. "The Child Welfare lady. She said she was going to take Dawn and Jessica away."

Xander felt his stomach drop away, and knew without looking that everyone else felt the same. He'd had run-ins with the Child Welfare before, once or twice, but his parents had somehow managed to hold them off. Still, he knew what they could do. To have them come after his family now…

Faith was the first one to react. "That bitch!" She shouted and slammed her fist down on the table. "What gives her the right…?" She shook the thought away. "Doesn't matter. Don't worry, B, no one's going anywhere. Just give me the night and a pair of pliers…"

"No," Giles told her.

"Fine, no pliers. Didn't need them anyway."

"I meant no to any of it."

"You heard what B said, and you know if they take Dawn and the kid we'll never see them again. We can't just let it happen," Faith snapped at Giles.

Giles met the challenge in her voice with a glare. "And we won't. But first we need to find out what happened." He took a deep breath to calm himself before he continued. "Buffy?"

"She knew, Giles. Somehow she knew about the wedding." Buffy squeezed down on Xander and Anya's hands as she said it. She squeezed so hard that her knuckles went white. He knew it should hurt, but if it did he couldn't tell. He had a hunch that a safe could drop on him right now and he wouldn't even notice.

"How?" Anya asked.

Buffy shrugged. "She wouldn't say who told her. But she had our picture, or at least a copy. She said we were hurting Dawn."

Faith shook her head in disbelief. "Yeah, she's suffering. She's got a better home than I ever did."

Dawn just looked confused. "That's not enough. You didn't try to make it legal, and no one even enforces polygamy laws anymore, not really. And it isn't enough to take anyone away. Hell, it isn't even enough for a hearing, at least not in California." She felt everyone staring at her and blushed. "What? I studied. When mom died and Buffy told me they could take me away I spent a couple of days in the library after school reading up. Then all this… I bet I know more about law than Giles now."

"See?" Anya told Buffy, somehow managing to sound cheerful. "There's nothing to worry about."

Buffy shook her head and somehow managed to look even worse. "She said that was just the last straw. She knew about everything, Giles. Burning down the gym, that summer I ran away, all the fights, me being a suspect in Kendra's murder." She looked over at Faith, her eyes hard. "She even knew that you took Dawn into a bar this summer."

Faith leaned back. "It was just to use the phone! What was I supposed to do, leave her alone in a broken down car at night? Maybe I should've put up a 'Self-Serve Buffet' sign over her."

Buffy nodded. "I told her that. But she said I never should've been Dawn's guardian. Not with my record. That I wouldn't have if mom hadn't set it up in her will. Now she's finally got enough to fix the mistake. That's what she called it, a mistake," Buffy snarled at the word. She finally turned her glare on Giles. "Is this that thanks I get for saving the world? 'Cause I have to say, I'd rather have a crappy gold watch."

Giles rubbed his temples. "No. We aren't going to let it happen, Buffy."

Buffy bit back hysterical laugher. "Really? Someone better tell that Welfare lady, she seemed pretty sure."

"Could we call the Council?" Dawn asked. "They should be able to handle this pretty quick."

Giles shook his head. "No. I don't want them involved."

"But…" Xander began. It was a good idea, and by now even Travers should have figured out to leave them alone.

Giles cut him off. "No. They seem to have decided to forget all about Buffy and I want to leave it that way." He used the same tone he'd used when he found out about Xander's love spell.

"Well, if my way's out, then what about Anya's?" Faith suggested as she looked over at the ex-vengeance demon. "I mean, you've got to know a devil or two who owes you a favor."

Anya began to shake her head, not even wanting to think about it, but stopped herself. She looked at Buffy and let out a small sigh. "I could summon Hali. Try to wish it away."

Xander looked up at her. "Ahn, no."

Anya turned away. "It'll solve the problem."

"Permanently. Unless I'm mistaken," Giles murmured.

Anya closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes. That's the one rule with the wishes. Someone has to suffer. But what does it matter?"

"It matters to me," Buffy said, her voice surprisingly strong as the dazed look melted in her eyes. "And to you."

"Then what are we going to do?" Anya shouted in frustration, all aimed at herself. "I won't let her take anyone."

"Neither will we," Buffy assured her. "But there has to be a better way."

"What if one of us moved out? Just for a couple of weeks?" Xander asked. "Maybe that'll get them off our backs."

"No. If you leave now, you'll just look guilty. Dawn may be right and she's trying to rattle you into doing something foolish," Giles said. He turned back to Buffy. "You said she had a picture?"

"My favorite," Buffy said as she pulled the photograph out of her purse and set it down in the middle of the table.

Xander glanced down at the photograph. It was his favorite, too, but he had more important things to worry about. Then something caught his eye, a black line across the bottom right corner. As if the original was creased there… Just like the one he had given… He kept staring while the discussion went on around him.

"Maybe the photo store kept a copy," Faith said. She cracked her knuckles and grinned. "I could go down there and knock some pimply heads together. Pretend they're Willy."

"No. They're the same people I take pictures of demons and artifacts to. I doubt that they'd take the wedding pictures any more seriously than those," Giles countered.

"We didn't send any copies out to anyone," Anya stated. Then she added, almost in self-pity, "Mainly because we don't know anyone else. Well, we did send one to Tara, but I doubt she'd tell."

Xander closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he admitted, "Actually, I did. Sent a copy, not told. But she wouldn't do this."

"Who?" Buffy asked.

He didn't look at anything but the photograph. "My mom. I wanted her to know about us, and that she's going to be a grandmother. But I never thought…"

"You sent one to your parents?" Dawn asked in disbelief. "The same parents who got drunk at the first wedding and spent the day screaming at each other?"

"And puked in my purse?" Buffy added.

"That was just my dad. Well, mostly." Xander shook her head. "Mom wouldn't… She promised she wouldn't tell anyone. I trust… I thought I could trust her."

"But are you sure?" Buffy asked, her voice soft.

Xander looked at the black line again, then stood up. "No. But I'm going to find out."

"And if she did?" Anya asked him.

"Then I'll fix it." With that, Xander marched out the door.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Xander stood on the porch of his parents' house. "I'm going to have to be calm and reasonable," he muttered to the faded oak door. "Don't want to make things worse." He took a deep breath and counted to ten.

Then he shoved the door open. "Where is that bastard?" He shouted as he jumped into the living room.

At first only the television answered him. He looked around the empty room and felt the first stir of embarrassment. Then he remembered why he was there and his rage beat up the embarrassment and locked it in a trunk.

That was when Jessica Harris came running out of the kitchen with a long carving knife in her hand and looking two steps beyond wigged. She brought up the knife automatically when she saw someone standing in the wide-open door, but froze when she saw his face. "Alexander?"

The embarrassment broke out of the trunk and beat the rage with a patented low blow. "Hi, mom," Xander said with a sheepish grin.

Xander's mom shook the knife at her son and scolded, "What's the matter with you? I thought you were one of your father's 'friends.'"

Xander raised his hands in surrender, and his mother blushed and put the knife down on a ring-stained table. "He has some?" He asked when it was safe, not even trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "I didn't think there was anyone left that was that stupid. Where is he?"

"Still at work. He's actually putting some extra time in this month. Either that or he got a new secretary." His mother sighed as she sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to her. "What did he do now?"

Xander collapsed onto the couch. "He went to Child Welfare about me and Buffy and Anya. He's…" He froze as all the rage in him screamed for a release. He lashed out at the coffee table and kicked it over, which sent the empty beer bottles flying around the room. It didn't help. It never did. He felt his mother's eyes on him until he got up to flip the table back over and gather up the bottles. Finally, when the room was back to the mess it'd been before he got there, he sat down and picked up where he left off. "They're going to take Jessica because of him, give her to some strangers and I'll never be able to see her again." He looked at his mother, his eyes bright with unshed tears. "Wasn't it enough he ruined our lives? Does he have to make it generational?"

"Maybe he's just doing what he thinks is best."

Xander stared at his mother. He would've been less surprised to see a third eye suddenly open in the middle of her forehead, and it would have been easer to believe that she used to be a Slayer than the words that just came out of her mouth. Then he started looking her over for injuries. "What did he do to you?"

She turned away and rubbed her arms as if she were cold. "What?"

"You've never agreed with dad. Ever. I used to think there was a law that said you couldn't. Now you do? Where'd he hit you? We'll go to the cops and have the bastard arrested."

"Don't be ridiculous. Tony's never laid a hand on me and you know it," Jessica said as she stood up and headed over to the liquor cabinet. Jessie used to joke that it was the only cabinet in Xander's house that was always full. It would've been funnier if it hadn't been true. He just sat on the couch and watched as she poured herself a martini. She was about to put the bottle away when she paused. "Do you want me to make you some? I know you're still a bit young, but I won't tell if you don't."

"I'm twenty-one, mom."

"Are you?" She wasn't playing, she really wasn't sure. Xander could almost see her counting the years.

"Yeah. Says it on my driver's license and everything. And no. It's a bit early for me." This side of never too early.

"Maybe later, then," Mrs. Harris said and put the bottle back in the cabinet. She went to take a sip of her drink, but her hand was shaking so much she almost spilled the drink down the front of her blouse.

"I never took you for the James Bond type."

"What?" She asked, her voice unusually shrill. Then she slammed the glass down on the top of the cabinet and splashed the drink over her hand. She glared at him as she wiped her hand off with a napkin. "Well, how do you expect me to react? You come in here screaming and threatening your father just because I… he tried to do the right thing. Tried to save our granddaughter from mess you've made for yourself."

"You." Xander somehow managed to get every bit of betrayal he'd ever felt into that one little word as he climbed back to his feet. "You're the one who gave the picture to Mrs. Kroeger."

His mother laughed harshly. "You honestly think your father would care if he knew? He's a pig. Of course I gave Doris the picture. Somebody had to clean up your mess."

"Why?"

"Why?" She turned to him with her favorite my-boy's-an-idiot look. "Because what you're doing is wrong. Don't tell me you don't know that."

"Yeah, I'm happy. Should've been my first clue."

"I know your father and I could've done a better job at teaching you to be a man, but I never… The first one, Anya, was bad enough. I thought I was going to be sick when I saw all those freaks she invited to the wedding. You know, the one you ran away from. Besides which, she was an ungrateful little hussy…"

Xander shook his head in disbelief. "You're still mad at her because she didn't want your help planning the wedding?" He looked around the living room, with its stained furniture and curtains. "You ever think it could have something to do with the White Trash look you've cultivated?"

She went on, not paying any attention to him. "… and then there's that Buffy girl. The little cheerleader slut. Don't even try to deny it, I saw her at the wedding. She was hanging all over your father, flaunting it right in front of me."

"She was trying to stop him from picking a fight with the rest of the wedding party! Trust me, she'd fling herself off a cliff before she'd go near him willingly. Not everyone's stupid enough to make that mistake." He wasn't even trying to hide the bitterness now.

Xander's mother's face went bright red. "How dare you. You can fuck those two whores all you want, but I'm not going to let you destroy my granddaughter's life."

"'Cause God knows Foster Care'll make her perfect."

His mother winced as reached down and grabbed her martini glass. She drained it and started pouring another when she stated simply, "She's not going to a Foster home. Doris promised me that."

"You're the one? When Jessica's born, you're the one… they're going to give her to you?" Xander just felt sick as he tried to imagine his daughter being raised in this house.

"Of course. You obviously can't handle it."

"And you can?" Xander laughed. "How? You and dad would need serious help just to qualify as bad parents."

"We gave you…"

"Nothing. Ever," Xander told her.

It was so obviously true that his mother didn't even try to deny it. But she didn't back down either. "Maybe we were just disappointed."

Xander closed his eyes and tried to force back the bile. "How could you be? You barely noticed I was alive. The only time you crawled out of the bottle was so you and Dad could scream at each other." He shook his head. "You know why I even bothered to tell you? Because despite it all, I was stupid enough to think that some part of you gave a damn about me, that you might be glad that I was happy. Shows how smart I am."

She marched up to him and tried to stare him down. "You had a doubt?"

Xander didn't budge. "There is no way in hell I'm going to let you put my daughter through what you've put me through."

"Put you through? Put you through? Do you have any idea what I've gone through? Having an idiot for a son? Getting calls from the principal saying you've been fighting and skipping classes? The only thing you've ever were to me was an embarrassment."

"Yeah, and you're the source of so much pride." Xander glanced down at the glass still in her hand and snarled, "Do the world a favor, speed up that whole drinking yourself to death plan."

Despite it all, the open hand slap to his cheek was a surprise. He never would have thought she'd be the one to do it. He'd spent ten years wondering when his father was going to cross that line, but the old man was happy with just ignoring him with the occasional screaming fit tossed in for flavor.

His mother looked just as shocked as he felt. She stared at his cheek, then at her hand, then back at him. "Alexander," she whispered, her voice like cracked glass.

Xander put his arms around her. "It's all right, mom." He whispered to her the same way he would a crying two-year-old.

"No, it's not. Even I'm not stupid enough to pretend it is." Then Jessica stiffened and pulled away from him. "I don't know how you can stand to be in the same room with me."

Xander shrugged, forgetting that she couldn't see him. "You're my mom."

"Never acted like one, not the way I should have," she said as she went back to the liquor cabinet to pour herself another drink. She let out a pathetic whimper when she realized what she was doing and flung the bottle against the wall, where the cheap glass shattered and sprayed the alcohol everywhere.

Jessica watched as the alcohol ran down the wallpaper in little streams, then slid down to the floor and wept into her arms.

Xander crouched down next to her, but didn't touch her. He just waited.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," she admitted, far more to herself than to Xander, when she calmed down. "Your father and I had so many dreams. Never trust them, Alexander. They'll only drag you down." She looked up at him and he felt like a gangly teenager again. Then she smiled. "Maybe not you. You were always the strong one. You had to be, I guess."

"What happened?"

His mother shrugged. "Life. Too many bills, too much pressure. Your father and I got married too young. Had a kid too young. Decided that drinking made it all easier. That's why I was worried about you. Didn't want you to go through what we did, but worse. So much worse… Why?"

Despite it all, Xander grinned like he always did when he thought of his two girls. "Because I love them both. And they love me."

She shook her head like it was a fairy-tale.

Xander finally asked the only question he wanted answered. "Why did you tell Child Welfare?"

His mother seemed to get even smaller. "Doris and I were out drinking a few months ago, right after you told me everything. You looked so happy that day," she whispered almost in envy, lost in the sudden memory. Then she shook it away. "Doris told me about how one of the girls she was assigned to watch was neglecting her sister. She knew it was happening, but didn't have enough proof to do anything about it. I felt so bad for the girl, especially after all those poor children they showed on the news. Then she said Buffy's name and I put it together. After all, I don't think there could be two girls named Buffy in Sunnydale." She grinned at Xander, but his face might as well have been made of stone.

Her grin died. "I told her everything and she asked if I had proof. The next day she came for the picture. She said she'd make sure Jessica was given to me. I always wanted a daughter… And I just wanted to help that poor girl."

"How did you even know her?"

"Doris and I were best friends from high school. She was always looking out for me, and that didn't change when she got her job. They investigated us once, you know, Child Welfare. But Doris dealt with it for us." She glanced up at him. "So we owe her that much, at least."

Xander snorted in disgust. "She's trying to take my daughter and my sister-in-law. I don't owe her a damned thing."

His mother jumped to her feet and spoke in a rush as she went over to the telephone. "I'll fix it, Alex. I swear I will. I'll tell her the picture was a joke and that I was drunk." She looked over at the alcohol that was still dribbling down the wallpaper. "I'm sure she'll believe that," she added, softly.

Xander just crossed his arms and waited. At first he thought that his mom would pull it off. She was all grins and giggles. Then her face fell. That was when the shouting and the frantic waving of her free arm started. Then even that stopped and she looked like reheated death.

When she hung up the phone just wouldn't even look at him. "She said she wouldn't stop the investigation, no matter what I said. She was always pig-headed, but I never… I'm so sorry, Alexander."

"I didn't think it'd be that easy, mom," Xander admitted as he stood up.

"I can still try…"

He shook his head. "No. You did your best. My friends and I'll think of something. Just, don't talk to her anymore. Don't make things worse." He pushed himself up and was about to go to the door when he froze. "Did dad know about any of it?"

His mother snorted. "Your father can't stand Doris. He's always said that if he ever saw her crossing the street he'd gun the engine."

Xander closed his eyes. "Great. The last thing I need is to give him credit for something."

Then his mother added, "But he's the one who saw what's-her-name, Buffy's sister, at the Kraken. He hit on her friend. He told me that she was a looker, though she had a stupid name. Hope or something."

"Faith," Xander corrected absently before he turned and walked over to the still open door. "I'll talk to you later, mom."

"Alex?" Her voice was so soft that he had to turn back. She wasn't even looking at him, she was just staring at the floor. "Do you… When Jessica's born. Do you think I can see her?"

Xander froze. He didn't even want to think about that now. To tell the truth, all he wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed, and forget today ever happened. His mother looked so… beaten that he didn't want to say no, but how could he say yes? In the end he just turned and walked out of the house. He thought he heard her start sobbing again, but it wasn't enough to make him stop. Not this time.

He took the scenic route back to the Magic Box, not to see any of the sights – he knew most of them by heart and a good number of those had been ruined forever in his mind by monsters – he just needed time to think. So it took him a half hour to get back to the shop.

He didn't go right in either. He stopped and looked through the window at his family – his real family. Everyone had spread out some since he left, but they all had a stunned look on their faces. Giles and Buffy were working behind the counter, Dawn was at the table staring at her books, and Anya was attacking any stray mote of dust she could find with her feather duster. He didn't see Faith, but he doubted she would go out patrolling until he came back, so she must've been training.

Then the nasty little voice in the back of his head started, the one that always sounded like his father, reminded him that it was right. They would've been better off without him. If he hadn't been there, none of this would've happened, and maybe if he left right now it would all get better. His eyes flickered between Buffy and Anya and he took a half step down the sidewalk.

"No," he whispered to himself and stopped dead. "I'm done running." With that he turned and opened the door. "Hey guys," he said through his suddenly tight throat.

Anya was the first one to reach him, and she all but leapt into his arms, but Buffy was right behind her. He pulled them both to him until he could smell the honey and vanilla from their shampoos.

Everyone held off on their questions, though he knew they must have hundreds. Giles and Dawn waited a good distance away while Faith came out of the training room with a towel around her shoulders.

"So, did he do it? Your father?" Buffy asked, her voice low, when he finally pulled away.

"And if we did, can we lay the smackdown on him?" Dawn asked with fire in her eyes.

Faith shook her head. "I never should've let you watch wrestling. But too late now. So can we?"

Xander shook his head. "He didn't do it. Though you could've told us that he was the one who saw you at the bar."

Faith looked confused, then smacked Dawn lightly on her arm. "Why didn't you tell me that the creepy old guy was Xander's father?!"

Dawn rubbed her shoulder. "I thought you knew! I figured that was the only reason you didn't break his hand when he…" Dawn stopped as Faith turned bright red.

Xander didn't need a picture drawn. "I can't believe my father felt up one of my friends," he muttered. Then he shuddered. "Actually, I do believe it. Just didn't need that image."

"You don't need it? You're not the one he did it to," Faith snapped.

"So who gave the photograph to Mrs. Kroeger?" Giles asked, trying to steer the conversation back to something useful.

Xander almost didn't want to answer, but he knew he had to. "My mom. She's… she did it."

"How could she?" Anya asked him in hurt and confusion. "What'd we ever…"

"We were there," Xander said. "She was jealous and we were there. She tried to fix it, but the Welfare lady wouldn't give."

Buffy saw how lost he looked and pulled him into an even tighter hug. If she still had her Slayer strength she would've broken him in half. "What are we going to do?"

"You're going to go home and get a good night's sleep," Giles said in his official Watcher voice. "All of you. We've done all we can today and running off half-crazed isn't going to help anything."

"Fine, I'll just do a quick patrol and…" Faith began with a sly twinkle in her eye.

"You'll go right home," Giles finished for her.

"Why should I?"

"Because I asked."

Faith glared at him for another heartbeat. Then she snarled and spun away. "You don't fight fair."

"No, I don't." Giles admitted before he turned to Anya. "I'll close up. Why don't the rest of you go home. Try to calm down."

Anya snorted. "That's gonna happen."

"Try."

Xander wanted to fight, to say they could be doing something else, but he just felt so tired. He didn't have to look to know that Buffy and Anya looked just as bad. Well, beat anyway, he'd never seen either of them look anything less than spectacular. So they did just as he suggested. Giles watched them until they were gone.

Doris Kroeger was typing away on her report and was so happy she was almost whistling. This would finally show that little girl who she was messing with, take that smug little grin off her face.

Things would've been easier if Jessica hadn't cracked, but at least now she didn't have to worry about giving the baby to that mess of a woman. After all, she was doing it all for the children. She was so wrapped up in her work she didn't realize that someone was waiting for her until he spoke up.

"Mrs. Kroeger?"

Mrs. Kroeger started and looked up at the man who seemed to come out of nowhere. Then she realized how quiet the office was and felt a twinge of fear when she realized she was alone. But that disappeared when she got a good look at the man and realized he was hardly the dangerous sort. He seemed about forty, with a pleasant smile and wearing a tweed suit. He looked like a professor, or maybe an archeologist. Not a Harrison Ford, but not too bad either. She grinned up at him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was alone. What can I do for you, Mr…"

"Giles. Rupert Giles." He said and smiled back. "I was hoping I could have a word."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Giles. Rupert Giles," the man said and smiled back at Mrs. Krueger. "I was hoping I could have a word."

"Of course," Mrs. Krueger grinned at him and ran a hand through her hair, she'd always had a soft spot for English accents. She waited until he sat down and looked comfortable before she got down to business. "Now, what can I do for you?"

Giles decided to just jump into it. "I'm here to talk to you about Buffy Summers."

Mrs. Kroeger's face slammed shut faster than a bear trap. "Like I told Mrs. Harris, I'm not going to close the case. Dawn and the baby are too important…"

Giles nodded, almost sagely. "I agree completely. That was why I was hoping that we might come to an… understanding on the matter."

"You can try, but I doubt it. I've always thought that Ms. – or should I say Mrs. – Summers was unqualified to watch after her sister." Especially since that incident with the 'magic weed.' Which still rankled, even after a year. She'd gone to her supervisor to get Dawn removed that very day, but when the drug lab technician came for a sample he took one look at the plant and laughed at her. How was she supposed to know that it was just a rare flower?

"You must admit that Dawn's grades have returned to their previous high marks."

Mrs. Kroeger started tapping her fingers on the edge of her desk. "For the moment, but for how long? Who knows what psychological damage she's undergoing by living in that house?"

Giles raised his eyebrow in a mild rebuke. "I've known both of the Summers' women for many years, and I promise you that Dawn hasn't shown one sign that she's suffering. Indeed, I believe that this is the happiest she's been since her mother's untimely passing."

"Unless she's pretending," Mrs. Kroeger countered. "I've seen children with cigarette burns on their arms and legs who still smiled and said they loved their mommy and daddy." She saw him flinch in horror and felt sorry for him. He so obviously didn't understand the truth about the world.

"The evil that men do could haunt even the devil," Giles muttered to himself, but it didn't seem to shake him for long. "Have you found any evidence of abuse? Has anyone even made the accusation?"

Mrs. Kroeger's tapped faster against her desk. She'd give anything not to say what she knew was the truth. "No. But, like I told Ms. Summers, not all wounds are visible."

"So you have no evidence, but you insist on breaking up their family anyway?"

"But I do have evidence," Mrs. Kroeger countered. "The photograph."

"Which was given to you by a woman you know is a drunkard."

Mrs. Kroeger shrugged. "It's a start. Just because I don't have the evidence now doesn't mean I won't find anything later." Then she smiled. "And it's a good start. Mrs. Harris is, as you say, a drunk. So I doubt that she managed to fake the photograph. You do know that polygamy is a crime in this country, don't you?"

"It's a law that's barely enforced," Giles countered. "A law that only exists because it would take too much effort to change it."

"But which is still a law. I'll use it in anyway I have to in order to protect Dawn and the baby," Mrs. Kroeger finished with a calm smile. She saw the stunned look on Mr. Giles' face and almost knew that he had come around to her line of thinking, had seen the rightness of it all.

His next words came as a shock.

"You don't give the slightest damn about Dawn or the baby," Giles told her, his voice still gentle even though the contempt he felt was clear on his face. "All you care about is proving how important and powerful you are, and Buffy's been putting you in your place for a year now." He grinned at her without humor. "To be fair, she does that quite a lot. Though with few as deserving."

"How dare you!" Mrs. Kroeger shouted as she jumped to her feet.

Giles looked up just enough to glare into her eyes. "You think I haven't seen petty little tyrants like you before? People whose only joy in life is destroying others?"

"I am just looking out for the public..."

"All you care about is not looking as pathetic as you actually are. Now sit down, you're giving me a crick in my neck."

Mrs. Kroeger dropped back down into her chair, her face bright red, as she fought for words. Then she looked at him again and saw his handsomeness in a new light. She clasped her hands and leaned towards him. "And what exactly is your interest in all this, Mr. Giles? I mean, isn't she a bit young for you?"

"I **beg** your pardon?" Giles mouth turned up in a sneer.

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "I mean, she is that cheerleader type that you older men go gaga for. Exactly how sure are you that her baby is Mr. Harris'?"

"I am as sure of that as I am that your husband has not touched you in a very, very long time. At least not without the use of a long stick."

Mrs. Kroeger felt like she'd been struck. Did he know Jer… No, that was impossible. He was just trying to get under her skin. Well, two could play at that game. "Then you won't have a problem taking a paternity test when the baby's born?"

Giles just shook his head in disgust. Then he let out a long, shuddering sigh and sank deeper into his chair.

Mrs. Kroeger took it as defeat and grinned. "That's right." She showed him what happened to people who tried to threaten her, just like she'd shown his little blond slut.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this," Giles muttered as he reached into his pocket. "But I suppose it was too much to ask that you'd be reasonable."

Mrs. Kroeger's eyes went wide and she shoved herself away from him. "You won't get away with…" She began to scream, but it died in her throat when she realized he had only pulled out a tiny flower. A pretty one, with three little pink buds. "What's that?"

"A Lethe's Bramble."

She giggled away her fear. "First you threaten me, and now you're giving me flowers? Maybe if you reversed the order you would've had a shot, but now that's nowhere near enough to change my mind."

"You'll be surprised." Giles bared his teeth in a grin and all her fear came rushing back. Then he said the one word. "Forget."

"Forget? Forget what?" Mrs. Kroeger she began to ask when the flower seemed to glow while everything else went dark.

The last thing she heard was Giles saying, "I'd hoped I wouldn't have to do this because I truly didn't want to hurt you. But now… now I can't bring myself to care."

Mrs. Kroeger made one last attempt to grab Giles, but her arm barely got halfway across the desk before she blacked out.

Giles watched as the large woman collapsed to her desk and felt a pang of guilt. "If you could only see me now, Ethan," he muttered in disgust as he flung the flower into the nearest trashcan.

Despite what he claimed, he honestly hoped that he hadn't done any harm, at least to her. The spell was almost more than he could handle, as was evidenced by the hammers pounding away at the inside of his skull and the trickle of blood that was dripping out of his right nostril. Still, even if the spell was fatal to him he had to try. He'd sworn on the night the Master rose that he'd do anything to protect his Slayer, no matter what it might cost him.

And there was no other way. The woman couldn't be reasoned with, and trying to bribe or threaten her would only make things worse. Even if Buffy somehow convinced the court to hang this witch, her own record still stood. A record that might still have Dawn and Jessica removed if it fell into the hands of another do-gooder.

Their only chance was if the report never got out, that and making sure the woman kept her mouth shut. The fact that she was here alone and still working on the report made it all the more likely. "Probably wanted to brag later," he said in disgust. Mrs. Kroeger just lay across her desk and snored softly into her paperwork.

Xander would have wanted to be here, but it was too dangerous. If Giles was caught all they could do was try and deport him; if Xander were caught with him it would've been the last nail in the coffin. Honestly though, he half-expected Xander and the others to show up at any moment, but they had apparently listened to him. "Will wonders never cease?" He thought. He knew, though, that he'd have a devil of a time holding them back until he found out if this worked, one way or the other.

Giles stood, ignoring the way the room was softly swayed around him - he'd gotten used to far worse after all those blows to his head over the years - and checked on Mrs. Kroeger. Her heartbeat was beating strong and regular, so she was all right. Physically, anyway. Mentally was another question. He'd used the spell to erase her every memory of Buffy, of anyone in his family. He just wasn't sure if it had taken anything else, or how much if it had.

"Can't worry about that now," Giles muttered to himself. He roughly grabbed the woman under the arms and pulled her back into her chair, then rolled her out of the way so he could get to her desk.

He found Buffy's file right off in the bottom drawer of her desk, the locked bottom drawer. Not that that stopped him for long. The file was a good inch thick, stuffed with multiple copies of the picture and notes. He shoved the pictures into his jacket pocket and then skimmed over the notes. The last ten pages were all about her investigation of the wedding. He pulled those out and pocketed them as well.

Giles also found the form that would release Buffy from the agency's watch list shoved in the back of the folder, apparently forgotten. He took it and quickly scrawled Buffy's signature in place. He smirked to himself, thinking back to all those times in high school when Buffy had used him as an excuse to get out of trouble. Especially all those times that didn't have anything to do with slaying. Mrs. Kroeger's signature would have been a larger obstacle, but he found a stamp on the top of her desk with her name on it. So he just stamped the right place, dated it, and slipped the form into one of her co-workers' out baskets.

Then came the part he was dreading. The computer. Fortunately for him, she already had it open to Buffy's file, but that was where his good luck ended. He just stared at the screen and tried to figure out what to do next.

"I wish Willow were here," Giles muttered to himself as he pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead. Then he shoved the thought away. The last thing he wanted was to be reminded of how he had failed, acted too late and how Willow had paid the price for it.

It took Giles five minutes to figure out what to do, or at least what to try. He grabbed for the mouse, but before he reached it the screen blinked. His hand darted back. "What the bloody hell did I do?"

Then, as he watched, the file rewrote itself. All the notes on Buffy, Xander and Anya's relationship vanished like they had never been and the status on the bottom changed from 'recommend an immediate hearing' to 'acceptable conduct. End surveillance.' When it was done, the file saved itself and the screen changed to a completely different girl.

"Whatever it was, I wish it would happen more often," Giles whispered in awe. Then the suspicion set in. He scowled in distaste, but reached for the keyboard anyway. Before he could try anything he heard a low, painful moan come from the chair behind him. "Blast." Giles glanced at the computer one more time, then turned and rushed from the office.

He waited in the parking lot until Mrs. Kroeger left a half hour later. The woman looked dazed, but none the worse for wear. She managed to turn on her car, and seemed to know where she was going. All good signs, but he was still going to have to keep his eye on her for the next few weeks just in case.

If for no other reason than to figure out what happened with her computer.

A week later.

Giles was sitting at the table at the Magic Box, trying to bury the twin worries about the mystery with the computer and the complete silence from Child Welfare by working on the store's books. It wasn't working well, he kept skipping whole columns of numbers and having to go back and fix everything. He heard Anya helping a customer at the counter and was glad she was too far away to see how he was bollixing it all up. It would've been far easier if he simply put on his glasses, but he left them in his pocket.

He hadn't told any of them what he'd done; he didn't want to get their hopes up if his effort had failed. He also had to convince them not to do anything in case he'd succeeded. It wasn't a popular move. Anya stopped speaking to him altogether, and even Buffy, Dawn and Xander were quieter around him. Faith was the only one who wasn't angry with him, though she did seem to be watching him out of the corner of her eye.

Buffy was sitting across the table from him, working her way through the pile of bills and letters she'd grabbed out of the mailbox on the way to work this morning. She was going through the motions in the sullen silence that'd become the norm for the last week. The norm for everyone, really. Even him. So when she let out a sudden shout of joy it startled him to the bone.

Giles' eyes darted up and he saw her waving around a single white page with a smile that went almost from ear to ear. "What is it?"

"It's from Child Welfare!" Buffy almost shouted in joy. "It says that we're not on their watch list! They don't even mention the wedding!"

"Really?" Anya asked as she rushed over, the customer and her money forgotten, and plucked the letter out of Buffy's hands. She skimmed it over, then let out her own wordless shout and wrapped her arms around Buffy. Then she gave Giles a guilty look. "Giles, I'm…"

Giles waved it off. "It's quite all right." Anya flashed him a relieved smile, then pulled Buffy up for an impromptu dance. Giles watched the two of them and fought back a proud grin.

"We have to call Xander!" Anya shouted.

"And Dawn," Buffy added. "If they'll let her out of class."

Anya let out a giggle and spun Buffy around. "For the next fifteen minutes, everything's free!"

Giles shot to his feet and glared at the three customers in the store. "She didn't mean that."

"Yes, I did!"

"No, you didn't," he told her. "Trust me, you'll regret it in the morning."

Anya gave up with a graceful shrug and went back to dancing with Buffy. The customers didn't seem to mind, the two teenage boys who pretended to be Warlocks were too busy trying to keep their ogling subtle to do much else, and the girls' almost infectious joy wiped the scowl off the face of the lady at the counter.

Giles waited until he was sure that there wasn't going to be any more attempts to give away the store, then grabbed the letter from Anya's hands and went back to the training room. He read the letter twice, just to be sure, but it copied what he'd seen on the computer almost word for word.

"See something interesting?" Faith asked as she stepped around the punching bag.

Giles jumped backwards. "Bloody hell, do you have to do that? And can't you wear something that isn't black?"

Faith brushed her hand over her black t-shirt and leather pants. "I could, but then I'd miss all the good stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like you sneaking over to the lady's office last week. Figure that's got to be the reason for the good news there," Faith said and motioned to the letter.

"How do you know about that?"

Faith shrugged and leaned back against the bag. "Turns out that the office is on my patrol route."

"No, it isn't. Your regular patrols don't go within a mile of that building."

Faith grinned. "What can I say? Hate being predictable."

"I thought I told you not to go there?"

Faith crossed her arms. "I may owe you a couple of hundred, but I owe Buffy and Xander more. Dawn too. Now, you gonna tell me what you did? 'Cause I doubt that the lady changed her mind on her own."

"You don't know how right you are," Giles admitted with a sigh as he leaned back against the wall.

"So spill."

"I used a spell to erase her memory of Buffy, stole the evidence, and then forged the document that led to this letter. Happy now?" Giles' asked as the disgust that had been building up for the past week finally boiled over. There should've been a better way, but he'd panicked. He should've known better, done more. Just like with Ben, or Willow, or Travers. He wished he could keep quiet, but he knew Faith wouldn't leave until she had her answer.

To his surprise, Faith nodded. "Yeah. Figured it was something like that. Though I'm surprised you told me."

"I am, as well." Giles waited for the recriminations.

Faith seemed to sense that, and shook her head. "I've rolled around in too much mud, lit and metaphor, to play that game. Besides, we both know she was gunning for B."

"She was still an innocent," Giles said as he rubbed his eyes. He felt so blasted tired.

"So were Dawn and Jessica. Didn't matter to her."

"We're supposed to be the heroes, Faith. Supposed to stand for something better."

"Geez, G-man. Ain't like you killed anyone," Faith joked, but it died in her throat when she saw the devastated look pass across his face. "Man, stepped in it there."

"It isn't your fault."

Faith pushed herself off the bag and walked up to him until they were only a few feet apart. "Did you kill anyone just 'cause it was fun?"

"Of course not," Giles scoffed at the idea.

"How about because they were in the way of something you wanted?"

Giles shook his head again.

"Didn't think so. Knowing you, the only reason you'd do it was to protect us, or save the world. A guilty conscience is just a part of the whole 'white hat' package." She looked down at the hard wood floor. "Trust me, better than the alternative."

They stayed quiet for a long time, and then Giles reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. "You're getting remarkably good at this." Faith looked embarrassed by the show of affection, so he pulled his hand away.

"Yeah, well. Had plenty of time to listen to the prison shrinks. So, is there anything else you want to talk about?"

Giles thoughts went to the pair of glasses in his pocket, but he shook his head. "Not right now."

"Good," Faith said and finally let out the yawn that she'd been holding back. "Then I'm going home to hit the sack." Then there was another shout of joy from the shop. "Though I might stop to see how the party's going first."

"Of course," Giles said with a nod. He watched her go and locked the door behind her. He sank down onto one of the few chairs that were in the room and pulled his glasses out of his pocket

Giles carefully set the glasses down on the table in front of them and gazed at them. It had taken him three days to find the scrying spell that enveloped the lenses. The spell was so subtle that the magic had almost seemed to be a part of the glass. At first he'd been worried that it was another 'gift' from Ethan, but he'd only had this pair for two years, since right after Glory…

Then he performed the 'Tirer la Couture' and saw the two soft green eyes staring back at him. They seemed to widen in shock just before they disappeared. He almost thought that the spell was broken, but the magic still there. Whoever was using the spell had just stopped looking through for the moment.

The eyes were the clincher. He'd narrowed the spell caster down to just two people and now he knew. He just couldn't tell anyone, he couldn't get their hopes up like that if he was wrong. "Something I'm getting very good at," Giles muttered to himself.

Ever since then he'd been wondering what to do with them. His first instinct was to break the glasses, which would also shatter the spell. But if it was her… He couldn't sever her last link, not like that.

Giles also couldn't forget what she'd done. So he'd kept the glasses carefully wrapped, just in case. But now he put the glasses in place and hoped she was watching as he walked back into the store. If nothing else, she deserved to see how happy she'd made everyone. A gift for a gift.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

7 months after Black and White

The two-story ranch house was one of the few houses on either side of the street that still showed signs of life, though it wasn't even midnight yet. Its porch was lit up and there was a soft white glow trickling out between the curtains that lined the bay window on the second floor.

The house was an almost cookie-cut copy of the others in the neighborhood, right down to the off-white paint and the swing on the front porch. However, the interior more than made up for the plainness of the exterior, with the master bedroom as the most eclectically decorated room in the area. Which was understandable, considering the three people who put it together.

The walls were painted a white with a bare hint of blue and were covered with a half dozen seascape paintings that hung right next to an equal number of movie posters and Renaissance prints.

There was a love seat set under the bay window that would've been just big enough to stretch out on if it wasn't covered with laundry and was flanked by two small bookcases. One of the which was filled with an assortment of novels as well as books on demonology and psychology, while the other held dozens assorted knickknacks – one shelf alone held a banner from the First Crusade, a tie-dyed bandanna supposedly from Woodstock, a ring from the Order of Taraka and two Babylon 5 commemorative plates.

To the right of the bay window were two doors, the first of which lead to the hallway and the other to the master bathroom. The wall between the two doors was nearly wallpapered with pictures of the Scooby gang, starting with baby pictures on through high school and right up the wedding.

A large oak dresser and the door to the walk-in closet took up most of the left wall. The dresser was the second thing Xander had built in his new basement workshop - the first a crib - and it had nine drawers, three each for the people who used it. He'd also added a large antique mirror that Buffy and Anya had found at a flea market to the top of the dresser.

The room was lit by two vaguely oriental style lamps that sat on stands on either side of the king-size bed. The bed was by far the biggest thing in the room and the most colorful thanks to its powder-blue and scarlet coverlet, which Anya was lying across at the moment.

She was lying on her stomach with her chin in her arms and wearing the lacy red lingerie that she'd picked out from Victoria's Secret just for tonight. She'd hoped it would both build up her nerve to say what she wanted to say and make it a bit easier for her better halves to hear. It hadn't done much for the first yet, but that was okay because neither of the other was paying that much attention to her at the moment.

Buffy was standing in front of the oak dresser and staring at herself in the mirror with two small lines in her brow. She turned from head on to profile and back again but never seemed to find the angle she was looking for.

Xander, who was wearing the bottom half of the pajamas, was leaning against the closet door with his arms crossed. He somehow managed to look more and more worried each and every time Buffy spun for the mirror.

Buffy made a little disgusted noise and tried to suck in her stomach, but the pajama top she was wearing barely moved. Finally her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I look awful."

That was hardly the word Anya would use. To her, Buffy looked spectacular, living up to every one of the clichés she'd heard about pregnant women. But if they were true, were the cliché's? Or did they become clichés because they were true? It was just puzzling enough to bother her, which left Xander to do the actual reassuring.

He walked up behind Buffy and wrapped his arms around her. "You look beautiful."

"Please," Buffy scoffed at the idea as she looked down at his hands, which were joined over her stomach. "You can't even reach around me anymore. You might as well stamp Goodyear on my ass. It's certainly big enough now."

It was an obvious exaggeration. A hug just took a little extra stretching now, not that anyone minded, and as for her butt…

"Trust me, there's nothing wrong with your ass," Xander murmured into Buffy's ear as he slipped his right hand around to prove his point.

"Xander!" Buffy jumped and slapped his hand away. The gloom that had been hanging over her all night almost dissipated when she looked up and saw herself in the mirror again. "I don't know how you, either of you, can touch me when I look like this," she said as she stepped away from him.

Xander shook his head in defeat. "That's it. Tomorrow I'm taking that mirror out… and I'm going to hide the bathroom scale, too."

"That won't make me any less fat and ugly," Buffy pouted.

Xander closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before he continued. "The doctor said you're perfectly normal and healthy."

All of which was true, Anya thought, but it didn't seem to make it any easier for Buffy to accept. Like last week when, for the first time in Buffy's life, the scale went over a hundred pounds. Xander had to work late that night, so he missed the hours that she and Dawn had spent trying to convince Buffy she had to eat something and that dieting was a bad idea right now. It couldn't have come at a worse time either; Buffy'd just gotten her appetite back after the mess with Child Welfare...

There were days when Anya wondered if Buffy would eat anything at all if there weren't someone there making sure she did.

"Besides which," Xander continued to Buffy, "I've never seen you look anything less than stunning, even when you were dripping demon gore." He nibbled down her neck and on her shoulder until she finally let out a soft moan. Then he reached down and wrapped his hand around hers. "Now, come to bed and I'll give you a patented Xander neck rub."

"You sure know how to ruin a perfectly good bad mood," Buffy told him as she followed him to bed and sat down.

Anya twisted around so she could keep watching the two of them while Xander slid in behind Buffy and, after cracking his fingers, went to work. It didn't take long for him to get a contented sigh out of the ex-Slayer.

"This is why I fell in love with you to begin with," she purred.

"I live to serve," Xander said. He kept working on her shoulders and added, "So should I keep pretending that this doesn't have anything to do with Dawn going out on her first date?"

Buffy stiffened a bit, but it didn't last long under Xander's tender ministrations. "She's too young to be dating."

"She's sixteen. How old were you when you started?" Xander asked. When it was clear she wasn't going to answer he started nibbling on her ear.

Buffy laughed and waved him away, but not quickly enough to stop the flush that spread across her face. "Fourteen, all right? I just didn't like the guy she was going out with."

"Why? Tom seemed like a good guy, and he wasn't a jock or a creature of the night." Xander paused in thought. "Though he did give me an odd look when I made him touch that cross, but it seemed to increase his fear of me. Always a plus."

Buffy turned her head so she could look Xander in the eye and let him keep working on her shoulders. "That was a hell of a show you put on, too. I'm glad Dawn got him out of there before you started to actually beat your chest and grunt."

Xander shrugged. "Evolution's over-rated. Besides, I doubt he'll be trying anything tonight."

Buffy snorted and smoothed down the front of her pajama top. "Dawn's going to be lucky if he even holds her hand tonight. Didn't you see how he kept glancing over at me? That oh-so-flattering mix of terror and dread?"

Xander smirked. "So you're saying he's scared straight? That's supposed to be my job."

Buffy scowled back. "Keep this up and you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight."

Xander shook his head. "Not so. Remember, Ahn has veto power. Isn't that right, hon?"

Anya was less than half-listening to the playful banter; everything else was focused on Buffy – or more accurately, Buffy's stomach – and what she wanted to say. So she missed Xander saying her name the first few times.

"You all right?" Xander asked as he and Buffy disentangled themselves and scooted over to where Anya was lying.

Anya blinked and at last saw the concerned looks they were giving her. "What? Yes, I'm perfectly fine. Why?"

Buffy reached over and ran her hand through Anya's hair. It was back to its natural dark brown, for this month at least, and cut just above her shoulders. "You've been quiet tonight, is all."

Anya did her best to ignore the tingle up her spine, the same tingle she had every time either of her loves touched her, and chewed on her lip. She tried to think of a subtle, tactful way to bring it up what she wanted to say, but whenever she did that she ended up confusing everyone – even herself. She finally decided to just blurt it out.

However what came out of her mouth wasn't at all what she expected. "What's the baby going to call me?" She wanted to pull the words back the moment she realized what she said, but it was too late. She didn't have a clue as to where any of it came from. She'd never… Except maybe all those times she'd seen Xander and Buffy whispering over a baby magazine, showing each other picture after picture in wonder. She knew they didn't mean to leave her out, and they never stopped her from joining in, but… "When she's born, what's my role going to be?"

Now that the worry was out everything she wouldn't admit she'd been thinking about flooded out with it.

"Am I going to be Bee Anya? No, that isn't right. Wasp?" It was one of the insects, but there were so many, and she'd only heard the term used once when Xander was introducing her to his seemingly endless line of relatives. She was so afraid she'd end up like that, just someone to be introduced and forgotten.

"Aunt," Xander answered.

"Yes," Anya said brightly, but the mood faded. "Is that going to be my name? Aunt Anya?" Then she scowled at Xander. "Are you sure that's the correct insect? Bee Anya sounds better."

"We could call you Aunt Bee, but the Andy Griffith people would sue," Xander said, just to break the tension, before he got serious. "So, what would you like to be called?"

Anya knew exactly what she wanted to be called, but it sounded so selfish - even to her – that even she knew she couldn't say it. So she lied. "I don't know."

She knew that neither believed her, not that she thought they would. She waited for them to do something, yell, squeal, learn to levitate, anything instead of just sitting there. Even the two of them shrieking at her, telling her to never come back would be better than the silence.

Anya forced herself to glance up at Xander, who didn't look angry at all. His eyes met hers and glanced over at Buffy. She didn't want to look at her other lover, didn't want to see what was on her face. It could be anything from betrayal to joy to that blank mask she'd forced on after her resurrection.

What right did she have to ask, anyway? To be allowed to share after all she'd done? Anya thought to herself in disgust. But before her doubts could eat her alive, Buffy finally reacted.

It was a small thing, Buffy just twirled a few loose stands of Anya's hair between her fingers. "Am I going to be Aunt Buffy when you have a baby?"

"No."

"Then what makes you think I want you to be Aunt Anya?"

Anya blinked at that. She was ready for anything but… She peeked up at Buffy, who didn't seem the least bit upset. "You don't mind?"

"'Course not," Buffy said with an easy smile. "Though I expect the same whenever you decide to have a baby."

Xander, however, was scowling. "Isn't that going to get confusing? Having two people named mom in the same house?"

"I'm sure we'll think of something," Buffy said very matter-of-factly. Then her face lit up. "Ooo. I could be mommy and you could be momma. See how I played with our names?"

"Very clever," Xander said and leaned over to give Buffy a kiss.

Anya pushed herself up and back on her heels. That had gone far better than she could have hoped, so well that she knew they wouldn't have a problem with her next announcement.

"Now." Anya said with a grin on her face.

Xander pulled away from Buffy. "Now what?"

"I wish to make life, to have a baby. Now," she said and waited for the joyful celebration. She waited and waited, but it never came. Buffy and Xander just sat there, frozen like statues and staring at her.

Anya's grin collapsed bit by bit until there wasn't even a ghost of it left on her face. She never should have… should have been happy with what she got. She felt the lace frill of her negligee tickle at her neck and felt like an idiot – or worse, a cheap whore as she tried to cover herself with her arms. "I'm sorry," she whispered and pushed herself to the edge of the bed. "I just… I'm sorry," she said again. All she had to go was get off the bed and take six steps then she'd be gone. She could sleep on the couch tonight and tomorrow she'd pack and go to Giles'.

She didn't even make it off the bed. She heard Xander call her name, his voice sounded like someone was choking him, but she didn't stop. Not until his hand closed around her forearm. "Ahn, wait. I didn't mean… It's just… Since when?"

"And why?" Buffy added with more than a hint of disbelief.

"Ever since we found out that you were pregnant. I want to feel what you feel," Anya whispered without turning around. She couldn't face them, not now.

"What? Being large and shapeless? Back pain? Heartburn? The truly bizarre cravings? The maternity pillow? Or is it the joys of going to the bathroom every minute on the minute?"

Anya turned and couldn't keep the shock out of her voice. "Feeling a life inside of you. Knowing that you created something special." The thought of it alone was enough to awe her. After so many years of taking life, creating it even once seemed like a miracle, so much so that she couldn't understand the edge in Buffy's voice.

But Buffy seemed to sense the passion in Anya's and now she was the one who looked embarrassed as she slipped her hand over her stomach. The baby must've chosen that moment that moment to move, too, judging by the way Buffy's face lit up.

Xander stayed focused on Anya. "Don't you think…?" He stumbled around for the right words until he finally found them. "Shouldn't we wait until after Jessie's born?"

They'd shortened the baby's name after the vengeance worthy actions of Xander's mother. Actually, Xander had started it and Buffy and Anya just went along. This way they could still remember Jessie without saddling the child with that shrew's name. Of course, you would think that since what had happened was all that woman's fault she would've been the who had to change her name, but no.

"Yes. But you asked."

Xander rubbed the back of his neck. "You've waited eleven hundred years? What's another couple?"

"Xander," Buffy murmured. Xander raised his hands and backed off. "You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"

Anya's face lit up and she wiped the back of her hand under her eyes. "Yes. If it's a girl I'd like to name it Diana, or Marcus if it's a boy."

Xander's grinned when he heard the name Marcus. "Ooo, we could get him a cloak and one of those cool sticks that pop open into battle staffs. And maybe when he gets older talk him into growing a beard. A manly beard."

Buffy smacked him lightly on the back of his head. "She isn't talking about the guy from Babylon 5." Then she looked worried. "Are you?"

"He is very becoming," Anya answered with a smile just big enough to leave Buffy wondering.

"Marcus Summers." Xander's eyes looked a million miles away when he said his potential son's name. Anya could almost hear the theme song start in his head.

"Or Diana Summers," Buffy added and then, a few heartbeats later, she started grinning. "I like this plan. It's a good plan."

Now that Buffy liked the idea, Xander started to back off. "Maybe we should sleep on it," he said, his voice wavering.

But Anya knew all his moods after the past four years, and she knew he was right on the edge of saying yes. He just needed the right motivation.

"I wasn't planning on sleeping," Anya said as she nailed him with the best come hither look she could manage through bloodshot eyes. She'd apparently chosen the right outfit after all, based on Xander's loud gulp and the way his eyes were running over her body. He didn't put up much of a fight at all when she finally all but tackled him down to the bed. .

Xander leaned up to kiss her, but pulled back. "Wait, not that I'm complaining or –God forbid – want you to stop, but aren't you still on the pill?"

Anya paused in her attack and looked a little guilty. "No. I… kind of stopped taking them a couple of weeks ago, after my last period. We haven't done anything, anyway. Not since the good news… And if you don't want a baby – another – we could use a condom tonight and I'll start back on them tomorrow." She said it all in one breath to keep either of them from getting the wrong idea.

The frown lines on Xander's forehead disappeared as his eyes darted between Anya and Buffy. "Well, it would be like having twins…" He said, swaying on the very edge.

"We were planning on having more, anyway," Buffy added as she knelt down beside Anya and put her hand on Anya's shoulder in a show of support.

Anya didn't say anything, she just pouted. That was enough.

Xander let out a big sigh, just for show, and reached up to cup Anya's cheek. Then he traced ran his fingers down the side of her neck until his hand finally rested over Buffy's. "Dawn's going to freak."

"Pff, just think of the money she'll make babysitting," Buffy told him, "I can guarantee she is."

Anya frowned at that. "Wait. We're going to have to pay her?"

Buffy laughed as she reached up and started to slowly unzip the back of Anya's lingerie. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts?" She asked just before leaned down to kiss every inch of skin she was revealing.

"Not now," Anya moaned as she arched her back.

"Good," Xander said as he leaned up and caught Anya's lips with his.

It was a quiet, tender moment. So, of course, that's the moment the scaly green demon chose to burst through the window.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Buffy's old instincts kicked in the second she heard the glass shatter behind her. It was a relief in a way, to know that they were still there. And she wasn't the only one who still had them. Xander was moving too, but Anya was just sitting there, stunned. It was understandable; she was never a front line Scooby unless it was end-of-the-world stuff, so she missed out on all the good oh-my-God-we're-going-to-die stuff. Just as well, Buffy always liked the heroic rescue.

Buffy wrapped her arms around Anya's waist and got ready to pull her to the edge of the bed. She'd feel like an idiot if it was just some kids pulling a prank – and if it was then the troublemakers were dead men walking, especially if Anya got to them first – but, given that this was Sunnydale, she doubted it was that simple. Especially when she heard something heavy hit the carpet.

Her eyes locked with Xander's for a heartbeat and he nodded, confirming her fears, as a goofy grin spread over his face. She grinned back as she pulled Anya off the bed while he pushed himself up to the headboard. The last thing she saw him do was reach into the crack between the nightstand and the bed for the sword that was waiting there.

Then Buffy felt Anya's hand close almost painfully around hers and she almost yanked Buffy off her feet in her rush to get to the walk-in closet. Buffy almost turned back when she heard the bed springs groan as something heavy landed on it, but Anya didn't slow down a step in her mad dash until they were safely inside the dark closet with the door closed tight behind them. Though not tight enough to block out the first few clangs of metal on metal.

The complete blackness brought back images of a thousand old horror movies as Buffy reached around for the light switch, where the helpless blonds trapped themselves in a dark room while a monster was just outside the door. Of course, she thought when she finally found the switch, none of those girls had ever been Slayers – or Slayerettes.

She flipped the switch and felt just a bit lighter as she gazed at all the little Slayer treats that filled the closet. Well, not completely filled, two-thirds of it was devoted to clothes – including at least one or two of Xander's shirts – and boxes that they hadn't bothered to open after the move, but the other third was a demon's nightmare. There were axes, swords, stakes, vials of holy water, a couple of crossbows and even a mace all hanging from the wall in loving care.

"It couldn't have waited another couple hours?" Anya groused as she slipped a strap from her negligee back over her shoulder and reached around to zip herself back up.

"Demons are rude bunch. Besides, according to Dawn, it'd have to wait for days before we were done," Buffy said with a happy little grin. It almost felt like the old days again. So much so that she started reaching for one of the swords.

"Buffy."

Buffy pouted and pulled the crossbows off the wall instead. "I know, I know. Buffy can't have any good, clean slayage-related fun."

Anya took one of the crossbows and loaded it. "Just for now. In a few more months we can go back to almost being eaten on a nightly basis again."

"If you say so," Buffy said with a hint of regret. She'd spent six years trying to get out of the good fight and a good time after that wishing she were still in it. But she knew those days were done - for all three of them. It'd be only truer after Jessie was born. She just couldn't go out and risk her life every night, not if… even Xander had stopped volunteering for patrols. Something Buffy had been hoping he'd do for years, not that she'd admit it. At least no more than she'd admit that while she missed the thrill of the hunt, she could finally live without it.

At least she could if they made it through the night, something the lightning fast snaps and clangs in the bedroom made look doubtful. She looked at Anya and saw her worry mirrored back. Xander had been spending extra time with Giles and Faith, just in case something like this happened, but she didn't know how long he could hold out.

"Shall we help our White Knight?" Buffy asked as she loaded her crossbow.

Anya's head jerked in a nod. "Let's."

They went back to the door, where Anya knelt down and Buffy stood right behind her. "Ready?" Buffy asked.

Anya lifted her crossbow. "Yeah. I just hope I'm aiming low enough."

"Down girl," Buffy chided as she pushed the door halfway open, just enough so they could fire and still have some cover.

Now they could see Xander do his best Highlander impression with the demon at the foot of the bed. "Go Xander!" Buffy said with an impressed whisper when he took a chunk out of the demon's shoulder. His training had gone better than she'd realized. Too bad the demon's only reaction was a single dry hiss before it launched another attack. Buffy's finger twitched on the trigger of her crossbow, but they were moving too much for her to have a clear shot. She forced herself to study the demon instead.

The hell spawn was just about as tall as she was and half as wide as Xander. Its skin was covered with drab dark brown and green scales with two bright red spots directly under its eyes as the only real color on it. Except for its size and its sword, it looked like nothing more than a big lizard, or one of those dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.

Xander summed the thing up perfectly during one of the pauses in the fight. "You're uglier than the average bear."

It was the demon's sword, or what little she managed to see, that really caught Buffy's attention. It was made of a goldish-silver metal that she'd never seen before, or seen described in Giles' books, but whatever it was it was good. It was taking chunks out of Xander's sword with the same enthusiasm of a dog working over a bone.

The demon ended the break with a low hiss as it launched another flurry of attacks. Xander dodged all but the last, a slice across his stomach. It was only a scratch, the demon was too far away to do any serious damage, but Buffy still had to hold herself back from firing the moment she saw a drop of Xander's blood. It was a good thing too, because in the next second the demon sidestepped Xander's blade, which meant that Xander would've taken her bolt in the chest. She heard Anya gasp and knew that they'd gotten lucky twice.

Buffy pulled her finger away from the trigger, then stretched her hand just to burn off energy as she watched the fight. That was when she realized two things. The first was that Xander was much better swordsman than she would've thought. All those lessons with Faith and Giles really paid off.

The second thing was that Xander still shouldn't have stood a chance. The demon might have looked like a two-legged alligator, but it knew how to fight. From what she could see, the only reason Xander was still standing was because the thing was off its game. It kept telegraphing its attacks and putting too much power in its blows, which worked out well when it connected but threw it badly off balance when it missed. Its mistakes should have left it wide open to a counter-attack, but it always managed to recover. Then it would fight well for a few blows before losing control again.

"What's it so mad about?" Anya asked bitterly as she glared at the demon. "It's not like we broke in on him and his mates when they were about to have a pleasant evening."

"Maybe he's just grouchy. Or jealous," Buffy offered and just knew Anya was right. Not that it helped, as she knew they'd never met a demon like that, so she still didn't know why it was so angry.

Anya seemed to think about what Buffy said before she finally shook her head. "That's still no excuse."

It was then that the fight fell apart. At first it looked like Xander had managed to out-feint the demon and was about to slice the thing wide open, but the demon swung its sword back around with bone-jarring force. The blades met and Xander's Swiss-cheesed sword shattered.

Everyone in the room froze to stare at the three inches of broken steel Xander still had in his hand. Then the demon let out a triumphant cough, lifted its sword over its head with both hands, and brought it swinging down at Xander's head.

Buffy and Anya both fired at the same instant while Xander dove to the right. The sword just missed Xander's left arm as it buried itself into the bookcase of souvenirs, but the bolts found their mark. The bolt from Buffy's crossbow hit the demon's already wounded shoulder while Anya's buried itself high in the side of the thing's thigh.

Buffy winced in sympathy and looked down at the top of Anya's head in disbelief. "You weren't kidding, were you?"

Anya was already reloading her crossbow. "No one interrupts my orgasms."

The demon let out a bellow of pain. A completely understandable bellow as far as Buffy was concerned. Then she realized it wasn't because of the injuries, but because the thing was ripping the bolts out. It had already pulled the bolt out of his shoulder and was wrapping its three-clawed hand around the bolt in its thigh. A wet ripping sound filled the room, and Buffy almost lost her dinner for the first time in months.

"That was just disturbing," Xander said and looked as green as Buffy felt as he climbed back to his feet.

Despite its injuries the demon wasn't done. It barely glanced at its sword, which was still sticking out of the bookcase. Instead it twirled the bolts around until it was holding them like daggers. It didn't bother with Xander, the demon was focused on Buffy and Anya now.

Buffy felt her heart stop as the demon crouch down and she suddenly knew how it had gotten up the fifteen feet to their window. She dropped her crossbow and grabbed the back of Anya's negligee with one hand and the doorknob with the other. She thought she saw Xander reaching for the demon's sword, but she knew he wouldn't be fast enough.

She yanked back, pulling Anya back into the closet and slamming the door shut at the same time. There was a second slam a second later as the demon hit the door hard enough to splinter the thin wood. Then there was a soft scratching sound as the demon wrapped its hand around the doorknob.

The knob jerked in Buffy's hand and it was all she could do to hold the door closed. Anya scurried around Buffy's legs and reached for one of, any of, the weapons that were still on the wall. The demon gave the door a vicious yank and Buffy's sweat-slicked hands finally slipped off the brass knob. She stumbled back into Anya and sent them both sprawling into a pile of clothes.

The door opened a half-inch, then slammed shut again as two feet of goldish-silver blade burst through the thin wood, the tip of which finally stopping right were Buffy was standing just a moment ago.

Anya pushed herself up as much as she could with Buffy sitting on her legs. Her eyes were like dishes as she asked, "Are you okay?"

Buffy blinked, then blinked again as she stared at the black blood that was dripping down the edge of the sword. "I think so," she managed to say after she did a quick mental inventory and didn't find any new aches. It helped that she knew how to fall, that and the fact that they were slobs and there was plenty of soft stuff to land on in here.

Anya let out a sigh of relief and wiggled her pinned legs. "Good, then could you please stand up?"

Buffy let out a nervous giggle. "Sure, just let me…" she began when the door started opening again. Her hand shot over and scooped up Anya's crossbow and almost pulled the trigger when the door opened and all she could see was a dark figure backlight by the bedroom lights.

"Xander?" Anya asked in glee. "Is it dead?"

Xander nodded. "Yup. That's one dino that won't be chasing women in bikinis anymore."

Buffy dropped the crossbow to the floor and let out a sigh of relief, which died when she saw the bloody cuts on his arm and stomach. "Are you…?"

"I'm fine," Xander said with a tired smile. "Trust me, they look – and hurt – worse then they are. What about you two?"

"We'll be fine once we get up," Buffy said and held up her hands. "And if you make even one wisecrack…"

"I think I can contain myself," he promised as he wrapped his hands around hers and pulled Buffy up to her feet, though not without a pained groan. He saw her glare and went pale. "Injury!"

"Uh huh," Buffy muttered.

Anya stood up and eyed Xander. "You were very heroic. I don't suppose…" She paused and traced her fingers down her hip.

Xander started to grin and took a step over before he winced and grabbed his stomach. "Sorry, hon. Not tonight."

"Maybe we should get you to the hospital," Buffy said.

"As tempting as it would be, considering we just need one more stamp for the free sub, I don't think I'm that bad. Just a bit bloody and sweaty."

"I can tell," Buffy said as she made a show of holding her nose. He made a face at her that disappeared promptly with a kiss. "You let Anya clean you up while I call Giles."

Anya made a face. "Do you have to? Wasn't the night ruined enough without adding research?"

"Gotta keep the G-man in the loop. You know how mopey he gets when his books get dusty," Xander told her. "Besides, now I get to brag. Xander the Barbarian." He strutted for two steps before he let out a hiss of pain and sank down to the bed with his hand around his right foot.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked.

Xander winced as he pulled back his hand and saw blood. "I think I stepped on something."

"Can't imagine what," Anya muttered as she glared down at the hundreds of glittering shards of glass in the carpet. She grabbed a tissue and knelt down after making sure she wouldn't get cut on anything herself. "Hold still and let me take a look."

Xander sighed as she cradled his foot. "Yes, dear."

Anya dabbed away some of the blood with the tissue and nodded. "It's just a chunk of glass. Just hold still until I get the first aid kit," she said as she got up, stepped into a pair of slippers, and headed for the master bathroom.

Xander pressed the tissue against the injury. "Might as well make the call, Buff. We're not going anywhere."

"Unless Anya needs someone to hold you down while she works," Buffy said, her eyes glittering.

Xander stuck his tongue out at her. "Just make the call."

Buffy raspberried him right back as she grabbed the cordless phone and hit Speed dial. The phone rang exactly two times before it was answered.

"Hello?" Giles answered, sounding distracted. Probably going through his Time-Life monster series again.

"Hey, Giles. Bad time?"

"Not at all, Buffy. Though it is a bit late. Is there something wrong?"

Buffy looked around her bedroom, with its shattered window, sliced and diced bookcase and demon still pined to the wall, while Anya came back in with the first aid kit and, despite his protests, started wrapping bandages around Xander's stomach and shoulder. "Nah. Normal night for us. At least it was last spring."

"Demon?" Giles asked with the first hint of worry.

"Yeah," Buffy answered. "Lizardy, my size, knew how to use a sword. Dead though, thanks to Xander."

The expected sigh of relief didn't come. "I see. I don't suppose you noticed anything else? Did it say anything?"

Buffy scowled as she thought back. "It sounded like a chicken with a hairball to me? Did it say anything to you?" she asked Xander.

"Yeah, when I introduced it to the door it said…" Xander began just before he let out a pained hiss and tried to jerk his foot away out of Anya's hands.

"Hold still!" Anya scolded as she wrestled his foot back and went back to her not-so-gentle tweezers usage.

"Guys," Buffy tried to break in, but neither paid her any attention.

"I'd like to see how still you'd stay if you were the one with a foot of glass sticking out of your foot!" Xander yelped again as Anya pinched down on something and yanked the tweezers back.

"It's hardly a foot. See?" Anya said as held the bloody quarter inch sliver of glass up in triumph.

Xander blanched and turned away. "I don't need to see it! Either mount it on the wall or throw it away!"

"Fine," Anya said as she wrapped the glass up in a tissue and dropped it in the trash. Then she got the rubbing alcohol. "Though, I must say, you've ruined several of my illusions."

Xander barely winced from the antiseptic, which was nothing compared to the glass. "You're one to talk."

Anya cocked an eyebrow in surprise while she wrapped a bandage around his foot. "What?"

"You've ruined my images too, you know. I mean, how many big bad's are afraid of bunnies," then his eyes glittered evilly, "or are so ticklish?" With that his hands went down to her ribs.

However, before he could get much more than a chuckle out of Anya, Buffy interrupted with a frustrated, "GUYS!"

"What?" Anya snapped back in frustration as she slapped Xander's hands away.

"Giles wants to know what it said," Buffy explained.

It was enough to soften the look in Anya's eyes, but not much. "It spat a lot. Demons without lips are just that much more inconsiderate."

"Thanks," Buffy said dryly. "Xander?"

Xander scowled as he tried to remember, then he snapped his fingers. "Vision at I. No, Vishanti."

Buffy passed it on to Giles, who warped straight from worried to wigged. "Faith and I will be at your house in five minutes, stay there."

"What, why?" Buffy asked and glanced at the shishkabbobed demon again. "I think this one's dead."

"That one might be," Giles agreed, "but the Vishanti don't hunt alone."

She wanted to ask a half-dozen questions, but "Ah," was the only thing she could say.

"What's wrong?" Anya asked as soon as Buffy hung up the phone.

"Get weapons," Buffy ordered as she slipped back into Slayer mode. "We have to get downstairs. Basement would be best."

Anya nodded and ran back to the closet while Xander stood back up, his hand on the bandage around his stomach. "Why?" he asked as he got up and hunted for a shirt.

"Giles said that our friend here might have brought company," Buffy explained pulled a pair of sweatpants out of the dresser and stepped into them, then sat down to put on her sneakers.

"Of course it did. You know how dangerous Sunnydale is at night. Not even the demons go out alone," Xander replied. Then he looked around. "Maybe they'll pay damages?"

It was a good thought, but… "Doubt it, but we can always take it out of their hides."

Anya came back out carrying a new sword and the two crossbows. She paused long enough to eye the dead demon. "They would make beautiful purses. Or shoes," she added as turned back and she handed out the weapons. Buffy took back her crossbow, but Xander shook his head at the new sword.

"No thanks," he said as he walked over and wrapped his hands around the hilt of the demon's sword. He managed to yank the sword free, but winced as the demon's body slid free and dropped limply to the ground. "I'm good."

Anya shrugged and threw the extra sword down on the bed.

Buffy hoped they wouldn't need it, but knew that they couldn't use it either. She wasn't quick enough anymore, and Anya... Well, Buffy remembered the month she'd spent trying to convince the ex-demon that she wasn't supposed to hold the bat by the middle. A month she'd never get back.

"Let's go," Buffy said and lead them into the hall.

They didn't get any further than through the doorway before Anya gasped. Buffy followed her eyes down to the living room and saw five pairs of glowing yellow dots staring back up at them. She whispered a prayer, not that she thought it would help, as she slapped at the light switch.

"This isn't good," Xander muttered as glared down at the five demons who'd invaded their home. The only thing that made them even marginally better was the fact that these were polite enough to use the door instead of bursting through a window.

Xander step back and bring his sword up while Anya took aim with her crossbow. Buffy did the same as she studied the demons beneath them. Four of them were so identical to the one Xander had killed that they might as well have been clones, but the fifth was different. It looked older and much more dangerous, and it wasn't just because of the scars that crisscrossed the thing's body like a bizarre map. It was the way it carried itself, a way that almost screamed warrior.

And the twin weapons it was carrying were even more impressive. They looked like double-headed axes that were made of the same goldish-silver metal as Xander's sword with an almost nonexistent handle that forced him to keep his hands right between the tips of the bottom pair of blades. Buffy assumed the tips were smooth, but she still wouldn't want to get jabbed with them. The demon didn't seem worried, though. At least she didn't think it looked worried.

"The one with the scars is the leader," Buffy told her two lovers, her voice low. "He's the one to watch out for."

The demons took a step forward with the precision of an army on maneuvers, but Scar turned and snapped something at them that made them stop in their tracks. The four turned to Scar and hissed in what had to be disapproval, but that ended when Scar flattened one with side of the axe in his right hand. Then Scar turned back to the threesome, crouched down, and leapt up.

Anya managed to fire, but her bolt buried itself harmlessly into the floor as Scar landed with a thump between her and Xander.

"Anya!" Xander shouted as the demon swung its right arm down and sliced through Anya's crossbow. Anya barely managed to get her hands out of the way in time or they would have joined the ruined crossbow on the ground.

Xander tried to drive his stolen sword into Scar's back, but Scar swung around like a ghost and blocked his blow with the axe on his left hand.

"Zorag," Scar hissed as it turned to Xander.

"Yeah. Right back at you," Xander snapped back as he went into a defensive stance.

The growl that came from Scar seemed to shake the house as he launched his attack. Xander blocked the first blow from the left, but when he tried to counter-attack Scar caught Xander's blade in between his axes and yanked the sword out of Xander's hands.

"Oh, crap," Xander muttered as his sword went flying over the banister.

The second Scar disarmed Xander it threw itself to the side, kicked off the wall and landed in front of Buffy. Buffy brought her crossbow up and aimed for the demon's throat while he aimed for her stomach. It tried to slice threw Buffy's crossbow like it did Anya's, but Buffy managed to dodge to the side without losing her aim on the thing's throat. Then they both froze and just stared at each other, taking measure.

"Buffy!" Xander and Anya shouted together and rushed forward to try and save her, but she stopped them with a glance. The demons downstairs made some kind of noise too, but none of them moved to help.

Buffy stared into Scar's unblinking eyes and realized for the first time that he was blind in one. There was a long jagged scar that ran right across his milky white right eye. The odd thing was, she had a feeling that that was the eye he was watching her with. She saw his hands tighten around the handles of his weapons, then relax. At least until Anya got one step too close, then he swung around and leveled the axe in his left hand at her.

Buffy tensed, ready to fire if the Godzilla reject so much as twitched in Anya's direction. Instead he took a step back and lowered his weapons. He glanced between Buffy and Anya in confusion. A confusion it must've wanted to share, because it dropped down to one knee and lowered his head.

"Dosha," Scar finally whispered and Buffy had the feeling that he'd be smiling if he had lips.

Then scar turned to his four comrades, who were still watching and waiting. "Dosha!" he repeated in a shout.

"Dosha!" the other demons repeated in shock and looked up the stairs in awe.

"Then what happened?" Giles asked as he sipped at his tea. Buffy and Anya were sitting across from him in their dining room while Xander was upstairs covering the broken window with plywood and Faith patrolled the neighborhood, just in case.

"Then they left. But not before leaving us some parting gifts," Buffy said as she drank her own green tea and nodded at Scar's axes, which were sitting on the table between them.

"It was very odd," Anya muttered as she pulled her robe tighter around her. She never got a chance to change. Giles and Faith showed up just moments after the demons had left and it was a toss up over who blushed more, Anya or Giles. Buffy knew her girl talked big, but wigged at even the thought of anyone but her or Xander seeing her in something that skimpy. A fear Buffy completely understood.

Giles let out a reserved smile. "I can imagine." He reached over and took one of the axes and looked at his reflection in the metal. "I wonder what it's made of?"

"I was wondering too," Xander said as he came down the stairs and dropped his hammer on the table. "Its good stuff, whatever it is. Still got my souvenir," he said and tapped the sword he'd taken, which was in a scabbard around his waist.

Giles gripped the axe and gave it a few practice swings. "It's remarkably well made. You say the demon gave one to each of you?"

Buffy nodded. "To me and Anya, yeah."

"Maybe he was apologizing," Anya said.

Giles scowled. "For what?"

"For interrupting my many possible orgasms, of course."

"I… doubt it," Giles said as gently as he could.

"So, what were they?" Xander asked as he sat down next to Buffy.

Giles scowled at one of the books he'd brought with him. "Vishanti demons. Pack hunters."

"So they just go around shouting their names?" Buffy asked. "'Cause that seems stupid, even for demons."

Giles shook his head. "In a way. As far as I can tell, Vishanti means hunter."

"Cool, so I'm in the gang?" Xander asked.

"In a very, very slight manner of speaking," Giles said as he put the axe back down. "There are three words in their religion. Vishanti, Zorag; which means prey, and Dosha; which means death."

Anya scowled. "But that's what the demon called us. Why would he call us death? We didn't even scratch him."

Giles toyed with his teacup before he answered. "More accurately, it means the one who will bring them death. They worship the being that they believe will kill them all."

"Well, that's creepy in a whole new way," Xander said.

"Indeed."

But now Buffy was the one scowling. "If they want out, why put up a fight?"

Surprisingly it was Anya who answered. "Because they only want to be killed by the best. Everyone else is prey and beneath them."

Giles nodded. "Exactly. Thought how…?"

Anya hugged herself in memory. "They killed a vengeance demon in the 17th century. Amira."

"How?" Xander asked. "I mean, couldn't she have just puffed away?"

Anya shook her head. "If she knew they were coming. And as far as we could tell, they destroyed her power center first. They must've been hunting vengeance demons for years, just waiting to find one of us."

"Why?" Buffy asked.

"To see if they could. Because they didn't know who this 'Dosha' was," Giles explained, "they only knew he, she or it existed."

"Well, now they know. Why not just kill us while we're weak?" Buffy pressed. She just couldn't shake the feeling he was holding something back, and the way he kept stalling didn't help matters any.

Giles poured himself a fresh cup of tea before he answered. "They must want a fair fight. When you're in better condition."

"At least they're that considerate," Buffy grinned as she reached for the other axe and picked it up. It was a little big, but otherwise seemed like the perfect weapon. "Nice to know I'll have some slayage coming after all."

"It might not be you. They gave one to me, as well," Anya pointed out as she eyed the other axe in distaste.

"That's what gets me," Xander said, but he didn't look happy about any of it. "If the scary one knew who it was, why give it to both of them?"

Giles shrugged as he sipped at his tea. "Visions of the future are rarely clear. Maybe it could only narrow it down to the two of you. Don't forget it might have been mistaken and neither of you are the Dosha."

Buffy knew he didn't think either was likely just by the tone in his voice, but she wasn't concerned. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. I mean, we know we're going to kill them sooner or later. So, what does it matter?"

Giles nodded, but still didn't look satisfied. "Of course. Only time will tell."

"The thing I'm worried about," Xander began as he leaned over in his chair to get a better look out the window, "is what are we going to tell Dawn and her date? 'Cause I think I just saw them pull into the driveway."


End file.
